More RAB men were involved

One of the three former RAB officers held in connection with the Narayanganj seven murders have confessed and said other men from the force were also involved.

Maj (retd) Arif Hossain reportedly made the disclosure while giving a confessional statement yesterday before the court of Senior Judicial Magistrate KM Mohiuddin of Narayanganj.

A source who saw the confessional statement said at least one of the other RAB men was from a Dhaka-based unit of the elite force.

According to a source in the Narayanganj court, amid tight security, Arif delivered two statements in separate cases filed by the families of slain city panel mayor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Sarkar.

The source, who saw the statements, also said the statement given in the Nazrul murder case was 20 pages long while the one in the Chandan murder case was a 17-page one.

The source also said an influential family from the port city had an indirect involvement with the crimes.

While giving the statement under section 164 of the penal code, Arif admitted that he and the two other arrested ex-RAB officials were involved and gave a chilling description of the entire incident.

Arif and Lt Col (retd) Tarek Sayeed Mohammad, one other of the three ex-RAB men, were then produced before the court of Ishtiak Ahmed, another senior judicial magistrate of the port city, on completion of the third spell of five-day remands against each of them.

After the day’s hearing, the magistrate court granted police five-day remand for the fourth time against Tarek only. Arif was sent to jail because he had confessed.

Both Arif and Tarek were wearing helmets when they were brought to the court. Arif had stubbles on his cheeks and looked anxious; but Tarek was clean shaved and looking relaxed.

During the hearing on remand plea, SI Ashraf-uz-Zaman of court police, who pleaded for the remand, said that on the afternoon of April 27, while transferring the five abducted people, including councillor Nazrul, from a RAB car to another car in the Fatulla area on the Dhaka-Narayanganj link road, the RAB members noticed that Chandan Sarkar was shooting the incident in his mobile phone. That was why the RAB men picked him and his driver up as well.

Labelling the prime suspect “godfather,” Ashraf said Nur Hossain had a feud with Nazrul. The two former RAB officials were close to Nur, who used them for money to abduct and kill the seven.

After hearing, Ashraf told the Dhaka Tribune: “Arif has given a confessional statement admitting his involvement with the incident. The other two arrested ex-RAB officials have mentioned the names of some other officials.”

He said Arif had mentioned that 14 to 15 more RAB men were involved with the crime, but declined saying anything when asked whether the other officials were all from RAB 11 or whether there was anyone from other units of the force.

He also declined disclosing anything on whether any other politician from the city had any involvement, but said Arif had given a vivid description of the rivalry among local political clouts.

Sakhawat Hossain, president of the district lawyers’ association, told the court: “Accused Arif’s confession has proved that what we had been allegationing about the seven murders
are true.”

In his turn, Lt Col (retd) Tarek said at the court that everything the lawyers had been saying were fictional. “I want to see the completion of investigation as soon as possible.”

SP Mahid Uddin, chief of Narayanganj police, said progress was satisfactory.

A highly placed police source, who had updated knowledge about the content of Arif’s statement and the progress of investigation, told the Dhaka Tribune: “This is a well compiled and a complete confessional statement… I can only tell you that many issues have come up in the statement… It is a good statement for the investigation and it will help to reveal truth.”

Another source in the court said the confessions, taken from 9:20am to 5pm yesterday, were given verbally by Arif and written down by the magistrate. “At that time, nobody else was allowed inside the magistrate’s
office.”