Bangladesh MP Likely Honey-Trapped Before Alleged Murder Near Kolkata, Key CCTV Footage Emerges

West Bengal Police have recovered CCTV footage purportedly linked to an apartment near Kolkata where a Bangladesh lawmaker was last seen before his alleged brutal killing, according to sources on Friday, even as speculations over the involvement of a woman added another layer of mystery to the sensational case. Police have yet to find the body of Awami League’s Member of Parliament, Anwarul Azim Anar, and they suspect that it has been dismembered and disposed of.

In the CCTV footage, two men could be seen with a green trolley bag and plastic packets. It was, however, not clear if this footage was from before or after the alleged murder, or from inside or outside the apartment. Anar’s body is feared to have been chopped into pieces — his skin peeled and bones cut — and carried out in bags and plastic packets, police sources say..

West Bengal’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) suspects the MP was lured into a New Town flat by a woman and then murdered by contract killers, according to a report in Bangladesh’s The Daily Star. Several media outlets have reported that a woman named Shilasti Rahman is under the scanner and that she was close to the mastermind of the alleged killing. She is believed to have been detained by police in Dhaka.

Meanwhile, officials in West Bengal have arrested 24-year-old Jihad Hawladar, a Bangladeshi national, from the bordering North 24-Paraganas district. He is suspected to have skinned Anar’s body, police sources say. They say that Hawladar has confessed to killing the politician with the help of four other people. Across the border, Bangladesh authorities have made three more arrests. There was no immediate word on the motive behind the alleged murder.

An initial probe found out that the MP’s close friend Akhtaruzzaman Shahin, a US citizen, had paid around Rs 5 crore to those involved in the crime, news agency PTI reported, quoting a senior police official that it did not name. Shilasti Rahman has been linked to Shahin.

Suspected hitman Hawladar, a butcher by profession, came to Kolkata two months ago, much before Anar’s arrival. The Bangladeshi lawmaker landed in West Bengal on May 12 for medical treatment and first stayed with a friend in Baranagar area. He was seen last seen in an apartment in New Town area the next day.

“Investigation indicated that the Bangladeshi parliamentarian fell into a honey trap laid by a woman who was also close to the victim’s friend. It seems Azim was lured to the New Town flat by the woman. We suspect he was murdered soon after he went to the flat,” an official in Bangladesh said, according to The Daily Star.

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