Staff Reporter :Police Commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police [CMP] Iqbal Bahar on Sunday said that Mohammad Wasim, one of the two detainees in connection with the murder of SP’s wife Mahmuda Khanam Mitu, fired shot from point blank range.His accomplice another accused Anowar Hossain, among others, was also directly involved in the targeted killing of Police Superintendent Babul Akhter’s wife at GEC Circle in Chittagong city in the early morning of June 5. He worked as a backup team member, he said. “They killed Mitu in a planned way. Wasim was on board of the bike and shot directly targeting Mitu. Wasim and Anowar, both hailed from Rangunia upazila, were detained recently. Wasim and Anowar, both the detainees, are professional killers and members of killing gang,” Police Commissioner also claimed while addressing the press meet held at CMP headquarters. He disclosed that Wasim and Anowar confessed their involvement in the killing mission in police interrogation and accordingly gave confessional statements under section 164 to the Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate Harunur Rashid yesterday . In reply to the questions of the journalists about the reasons of killing and its main masterminds, CMP Chief tactfully avoided the journalists saying it will take time to complete the investigation. In another question of the journalists, CMP Commissioner said the arrested ‘professional killers’ and have no political identity. When asked about the police confinement of SP Babul Akter in Dhaka residence, CMP Commissioner said police force were deployed in his residence for additional security measures. The press meet was told that Babul Akter was not detained in Detective Branch headquarters in Dhaka, rather he was called for some information as a plaintiff of the murder case. Senior officials of DB and CMP were present in the press meet. Apart from the two, five other persons, including a woman, were arrested in connection with the SP’s wife murder in the last four days and they have been kept at Dampara police lines.Earlier, SP Babul Akter was picked up from his father-in-law’s Bhuiyan Para residence in the city’s Khilgaon area around 1:05am on Saturday. He was set free more than fifteen hours after he was taken into police custody for interrogation. Dhaka Metropolitan Police authority said they quizzed SP Babul to verify some information revealed by several suspects who have already been arrested in connection with his wife’s murder.”SP Babul Akter was questioned in accordance with law. He is the plaintiff of the murder case and it is a normal process that an investigation officer will interrogate a complainant,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police [DMP] Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said yesterday. The DMP Boss said Babul was quizzed by a four-member team of Chittagong police at the Detective Branch office in the capital’s Minto Road on Saturday. “It was totally a matter of CMP, we [DMP] didn’t interfere,” he said. “The overnight interrogation of SP Babul in the case over his wife’s murder is ‘nothing but a part of a natural process of investigation. There is no need to misinterpret this. The investigator quizzes the plaintiff, crosschecks the information he has…it’s a natural process,” he said.Answering to a question, the DMP Chief also said police did not keep Babul under watch. “If any accusation is proved in the investigation, there is scope for taking direct steps…… The SP was asked to come to the DB office for questioning, but he wanted DB to send him a car to attain the office. We sent the vehicle as per his consent,” he said.CMP team also interrogated him as the five arrested suspects allegedly divulged his link with the killing, said the sources. After his release from the police custody around 4:30pm on Saturday, Babul said that investigators questioned him about the murder case, as he was the plaintiff of the case.At the same time, Babul also claimed that he had maintained a very good relation with his wife and denied allegations of marital problems with his wife. “We had a very good relationship. These are completely false allegations,” he said.Not only that, Inspector General of Police [IGP] AKM Shahidul Haque said that Babul Akter was not detained. As he is the plaintiff and that is why the police called upon him to ask some questions in that regard.On the fateful day, miscreants shot and stabbed Mahmuda Khanam while she went there to drop her son Mahir Akhter, 7, for his school bus. Later, a case was filed with Panchlaish police station of CMP, accusing three unidentified people after the incident.Babul Akter was attached with the police headquarters in the capital for his posting after his promotion as SP.
