TAVELLA MURDER : Three suspects on remand [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

TAVELLA MURDER : Three suspects on remand

Local October 27, 2015

Three suspects in Italian origin aid worker murder were remanded in police custody for eight days for interrogation on Monday, while another suspect made a statement before a metropolitan magistrate.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner claimed that the Italian citizen, Cesare Tavella, was killed by the arrested at the order of a ‘big brother’ and they were now looking for him.
The police claimed that they arrested the four at places in the capital on Sunday night, while families claimed that they were picked up by the law enforcers several days ago.
Metropolitan magistrate Muhammad Mahbubur Rahman remanded Russell Chowdhury, Minhajul Abedin Russell and Shakhawat Hossain Sharif in custody.
No defence counsel was seen during the hearing.
The investigation officer of the case, inspector Zeahad Hossain, in the application, said that the three needed to be interrogated to locate the firearms used in the killing and to identify other people behind the killing.
Another suspect Tamzid Ahmed Rubel made a statement before metropolitan magistrate Shahriar Mahmud Adnan.
Tavella, who was in charge of a project of the Netherlands-based ICCO being implemented in Rangpur, was shot dead in the capital’s diplomatic enclave at Gulshan on his way home on September 28.
Five days later, 65-old Japanese farmer Hoshi Kunio was shot dead near his farmhouse in Rangpur on October 3 in an apparently similarly-styled attack.
In both incidents, witnesses said three people were present and escaped the crime scenes on motorcycle.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Asaduzzaman Miah at a press conference at its media centre made the disclosure of the arrest of the four.
He claimed that Tavella was killed at the order of a ‘big brother’ to mount pressure on the government and portray the country as a ‘troubled state’.
‘We are looking for that “big brother,”’ he said.
The police also seized the motorbike the killers used in the murder, he claimed.
‘It was not a targeted murder, rather it was committed to mount pressure on the government…Their goal was to kill a foreigner, definitely a white, to create the impression that Bangladesh was not safe for foreigners,’ he said.
Asaduzzaman denied any involvement of religion-based militants or Islamic State group in the killing.
‘The IS drama was staged to cover up the real perpetrators,’ he said, adding that they had written to SITE Intelligence Group director Rita Katz seeking details about its claim that IS claimed responsibility for the killing, but she did not reply.
Metropolitan police joint commissioner Monirul Islam told the press conference that they had not found any information that suggested the authenticity of the claim made by SITE.
Police were conducting their drives to recover the gun used in the murder, the commissioner said, ‘We will come up with evidence soon.’
Asked about the families’ claims that the four people were picked up by law enforcers few days ago, Asaduzzaman claimed that the Detective Branch arrested them on Sunday night and the four might have gone into hiding few days ago to avoid arrest.
Russell Chowdhury’s family at south Badda alleged that a group of four to five people in plainclothes entered their house at about 11:00am on October 10 and picked up Russell.
Russell’s mother Afroza Akhter said, ‘One of them, a tall man with spectacular, gave us a mobile number and asked us to contact him to know about my son in case of any urgency. We spoke to him on several occasions and he replied that my son was fine.’
She said Russell was not involved in politics but she did.
Tamzid’s family alleged that he disappeared on October 12.
His maternal uncle Mainuddin Ahmed Tawheed said that they did not know the whereabouts of Tamzid since 12 October and later saw his name in national dailies.
They approached to Badda police station to file a general diary on October 21 and filled up a form saying that Tamzid, 29, went missing after he had went out of the house at 7:00pm on October 12.
Shakhawat’s family at middle Badda on Gulshan-Badda link road said that he was tortured by a female officer named Lucky with hammer on October 15 when he was picked up from the house.
His sister-in-law Fatimatuz Zohra Nilu said that he was picked up by plainclothes people and her husband Shohag tried to find him out.
The security guard of the house, Muhammad Ripon, said that at night on October 15, about 10-12 people took away Shakhawat from his room on the fourth floor.
New Age correspondent in Rangpur reported that the investigation officer of the Japanese farmer killing was changed on Sunday.
Kaunia police officer-in-charge Jahidul Islam was made the investigation officer replacing inspector (investigation) of the police station Mamunur Rashid, said additional superintendent of police Zoynul Abedin.
A court official said that two witnesses to the killing — rickshaw puller Munnaf, who drove Kunio to the spot, and Murad Hossain, who was working at a nearby crop field, –– made statements before the court on Monday.