KOLKATA: The initial probe into the “murder” of Bangladesh MP Anwarul Azim Anar revealed that one of his close friends, a US citizen, had paid around Rs 5 crore to kill him, a senior police officer claimed here on Thursday. The Awami League MP's friend owns a flat in Kolkata, and is probably in the US at present, he said.


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Police also said that the flat in Kolkata's New Town area, where the Bangladesh MP was last seen entering, was rented out to his friend by its owner, an excise department employee. “It was a well-planned murder. A huge amount of money, around Rs 5 crore was paid by an old friend of the MP to kill him. Further investigation is underway,” the officer told PTI.


Anar, who went missing in Kolkata on May 13, was found murdered and three people have been arrested, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan had said on Wednesday. The West Bengal Police had said investigation of the case has been taken up by the state CID.


Akhilesh Chaturvedi, IG, CID, had Wednesday said police had “reliable inputs” that Anar “may have been murdered”, but his body was yet to be recovered. Asked whether the police found blood stains in the apartment of a luxury condominium in New Town in Kolkata's outskirts, where the MP's whereabouts were last traced on May 13, Chaturvedi said, “Our forensic team is examining the suspected crime scene. It's too early to speak about that.” The state CID has found blood stains inside the New Town flat and also recovered several plastic bags, which they believe were used to dump the body parts.


Circumstantial evidence indicates that the MP was first strangulated and then his dead body was mutilated in several parts, police claimed. “The body parts were probably put inside plastic bags and scattered at different locations. We also suspect that some parts were kept in a refrigerator and we have collected samples,” the officer said.


The search for the missing MP, who reportedly arrived in Kolkata on May 12 to undergo medical treatment, began six days later after Gopal Biswas, a resident of Baranagar in north Kolkata and an acquaintance of the Bangladeshi politician, filed a complaint with the local police on May 18. Anar had stayed at Biswas's house upon arrival.


In his complaint, Biswas stated that Anar left his Baranagar residence for a doctor's appointment in the afternoon of May 13, while stating that he would be back home for dinner. Biswas claimed that the Bangladesh MP went incommunicado since May 17, which prompted him to file a missing complaint a day later.