International Desk

Bangladesh MP Anwarul Azim Anar might have been killed but police could not recover his body, West Bengal CID police said on Wednesday afternoon.

“Police had “reliable inputs” that Azim “may have been murdered” but the police were yet to recover the victim’s body,” Akhilesh Kumar Chaturvedi, CID IG, briefed newsmen in Kolkata.

The investigation into the murder of Azim, who went missing from Kolkata on 13 May, has been taken up by the West Bengal CID, he said.

“We had no prior information about the Bangladeshi MP’s arrival in the city. We came to know about him after his acquaintance in Kolkata, Gopal Biswas, filed a missing diary on 18 May,” he said.

A special investigation team has been formed by the Barrackpore Police Commissionerate to trace the missing politician, said Chaturvedi.

“The West Bengal police are in the midst of an investigation “when, on 20 May, we received a hint from the Ministry of External Affairs and today an input that makes us suspect that the victim may have been murdered,” he said.

Bengal police sources said they were exploring the possible angle of the body of the victim being dismembered and disposed of.

Asked whether the police found blood stains in the flat in the luxury condominium in New Town in Kolkata's outskirts where the MP’s whereabouts were last traced on 13 May, Chaturvedi said “our forensic team is examining the suspected crime scene. It’s too early to speak about that.”

The IG confirmed that the apartment was owned by Sanjib Ghosh, an employee of the West Bengal excise department, who, in turn, had rented it out to one Akhtaruzzaman, a US national, but refused to divulge further details of the ongoing investigation.

“We are doing our best to solve this case,” Chaturvedi said.

Azim, according to police sources, was accompanied by two men and a woman when he checked into the apartment. While CCTV footage showed the unidentified men and the woman left the residential complex in phases between 15 May and 17 May, the MP did not.

At least two of the three people accompanying the victim later returned to Bangladesh, police said.

A team of officials from the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate reached the housing society this morning and conducted the investigations inside until reports were last received.