Sagar Biswas :
Mystery shrouds the death of a sexagenarian Japanese woman whose body was exhumed from a graveyard in the city’s Uttara on Tuesday.
The Japanese national, identified as Hiroye Miyata, went missing since October 26.
She had been living in Bangladesh without valid papers and involved in the readymade garments business, police said.
“Police traced the grave of the missing Japanese woman at Uttara on Tuesday. The body was exhumed from the grave following a tip-off by the Japan Embassy in Dhaka. And the body was sent for post mortem,” Iftekharul Islam, Assistant Commissioner of Detective Branch of Police, said.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police [DMP], however, cancelled a press conference regarding Japanese woman mentioning ‘unavoidable circumstances’.
Sources close to the police headquarters said, the press briefing was cancelled following a request from the Japan Embassy in Dhaka. The DB of DMP had sent SMS [short message service] to the media houses about the press briefing venue at Mintoo Road at 11:00am.
But it was cancelled soon after concerned officials of the Japan Embassy requested Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque not to hold the briefing. Deputy Commissioner of DMP, Uttara Division, Bidhan Tripura, who went there to attend the press briefing, left the venue hurriedly after cancellation of the event.
Earlier, five people were arrested for their suspected involvement in the missing incident of the Japanese woman. They are: Maruful Islam, Rashedul Haque Bappi, Fakhrul Islam, Jahangir Hossain and Dr. Bimal Chandra Shil. Their age range is between 40 and 50 years.
The accused were produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Court yesterday with a 10-day remand plea. The court, headed by metropolitan magistrate Snigdha Rani Chakraborty, granted four days remand to each arrestee.
On November 19, an official of Japan Embassy in Dhaka filed a general diary with Uttara police station 24 days after the mysterious disappearance of Hiroye Miyata.
According to the GD, her mobile phone number was found switched off since October 26. She last spoke to her mother on the day and went missing after that.
Later, Operation Officer of Uttara Police Station Mizanur Rahman filed a murder case [no-11 under 302/201/34 section] with concerned police station on November 22.
A person introducing himself as her grandson buried Heroi Miata at Khalpar Graveyard in Sector -12 of Uttara as a Muslim.
According to sources, Hiroye Miyata had been staying in Bangladesh since 2006 without any valid papers. She was reportedly trying to connect her mother in Japan for the last few days.
Her mother contacted with the officials of Japan Embassy in Dhaka. Getting no trace, the officials of Japan Embassy filed a GD with Uttara East on November 19. Police started an extensive investigation following the GD and arrested five persons in connection with the missing incident.
The arrested persons during interrogation told the police that she [Japanese woman] died due to diarrhea, but the death was not reported to local police station or government hospital as she had been living in Bangladesh illegally.
As it is not possible to send her body to Japan due to lack of legal documents, so her body was buried at Uttara graveyard as a Muslim, the accused persons told the police.
