Police have found Rangpur lawyer Rathish Chandra Bhowmik dead following the arrest of his schoolteacher wife Dipa and her colleague.
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said his body was recovered early on Wednesday from an under-construction building in the city’s Tajhat, some 500 metres from Rathish’s home in Babupara.
His brother Sushanta Bhowmik Subal identified the body, Rangpur-based RAB-13 chief Arman said told the media at the site.
The arrests of Dipa, a teacher at the Tajhat High School, and her colleague Kamrul Islam Zafri led to the recovery of the body, said the senior RAB officer.
RAB says the detained Dipa late on Tuesday from her home after Zafri was held by police on Saturday.
“We’ve found the body following information given by Dipa,” RAB 13 commander Rabbi said, hinted her extramarital affair had a hand in the murder.
Rangpur’s Superintendent of Police Mizanur Rahman said Rathish went missing on Friday (Mar 30) and the police immediately launched an investigation.
The next day police detained Dipa’s colleague Zafri, who later confessed his involvement in the murder during interrogation, added Rahman.
Public Prosecutor Rathish represented the state in the cases over the killings of Japanese national Kunio Hoshi and Rahmat Ali, a caretaker of a shrine.
He had testified against Jamaat Secretary General ATM Azharul Islam, who was sentenced to death by the war crimes tribunal. The matter is now pending with the Supreme Court as the war crimes convict filed an appeal.
The legal affairs secretary of Rangpur District Awami League, Rathish was a trustee of the Hindu Welfare Trust, general secretary of Sammilita Sangskritik Jote’s Rangpur chapter, and president of the district unit of Bangladesh Puja Udjapon Parishad.
The 55-year old left his home in Rangpur city with a person on a motorcycle on Friday and had not been heard from since, his family said in a police complaint. His brother Subal later started a case.
It was initially suspected that the Jamaat or militants were behind his disappearance, but the arrest of his wife’s colleague led to the major breakthrough of the investigation.
Rathish was also the governing body president of the school, where his wife works as an assistant teacher.
