Special Branch officer Mamun Imran Khan, who was found dead two days after going missing, was murdered, said police quoting information gleaned from a suspect.
Inspector Mamun, 38, went missing Sunday afternoon. His family reported to the police next morning and on Tuesday, his body was recovered from a village in Gazipur.
The same night police arrested one Rahmat Ullah from Dhaka’s Uttara. He was produced in court on Wednesday when police were granted seven days to quiz him in custody.
Dhaka metro police’s Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman said that the suspect provided a detail of the killing and the names of others involved in the murder.
Police officers involved in the probe said Inspector Mamun, an amateur actor and Rahmat Ullah, who was involved in showbiz, were acquaintances.
On Sunday, Rahmat Ullah invited Mamun to a birthday party of one model-actress Meherun Nesa Afrin alias Annafi Afrin in the capital’s Banani.
Quoting the suspect, investigators said that the two found several other men and women in the flat when they arrived.
The men, who the Rahmat Ullah identified as Swapan, Mizan and Atik, blackmailed Mamun after managing to take his intimate pictures with the women.
At one point, they started to assault Mamun, when he told them he was a police officer, which led to his death.
Rahmat Ullah told investigators that the next morning the body was loaded in his car’s trunk and him along with the three others, who he said were former members of the Bangladesh Army, started for Gazipur.
They drove around Gazipur the whole day before finally finding a spot in Kaliganj in the evening. They dumped the body and set it on fire before leaving.
The Detective Branch, which is in charge of the probe said, soon after the missing report was filed they launched a joint operation with the police and the Special Branch. Based on inputs from phone-tracking, the body was traced to Gazipur.
Bangla Tribune’s investigation revealed that the suspects are a part of a gang, which used to blackmail people in a similar way and one Nazrul Islam was their leader.
The Banani flat, where police officer Mamun was murdered, was found locked on Wednesday.
Building supervisor Miraz said one Nazrul Islam rented the flat in May, which he said would be used as the offices for a media company.
The landlord had asked Nazrul to vacate the flat as he was falling behind paying the rent, added Miraz.
Slain SB officer Mamun joined the Bangladesh Police as a sub-inspector in 2005 and was posted in several Dhaka-based police units.
In 2015, he was promoted to an Inspector and posted to Chattogram (Chittagong). Some four months ago, he was transferred to Dhaka.
Mamun also acted in dramas and telefilms besides his job.