PBI files charge sheet against Babul, others in Mitu murder case

CHATTOGRAM, Sept 13: The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) has submitted a 2,084-page charge sheet in the Mahmuda Khanam Mitu murder case against seven people including former Superintendent of Police Babul Akhter.
Investigation Officer of the case and Inspector of PBI's Chattogram Metropolitan unit Mohammad Omer Faruque submitted the charge sheet before a court in the port city around 3:30 pm on Tuesday.
The charge-sheeted accused are Babul Akhter, Md Kamrul Islam Sikdar Musa, Ehtheshamul Haque alias Bhola, Md Motaleb Meah Washim, Md Anwar Hossain, Md Khairul Islam Kalu and Shahajahan Meah. Suspects Saidul Islam Sakku, Nurunabi Rashed and Abu Naser Gunnu were excluded from the charge sheet.
Of the accused, Md Motaleb Meah Washim, Md Anwar Hossain, Babul Akhter and Shahajahan Meah are in jail while Md Khairul Islam Kalu and Md Kamrul Islam Sikdar Musa are absconding. Besides, Ehtheshamul Haque alias Bhola is out on bail.
Anwar and Motaleb confessed to their involvement in the murder and gave statements in court. In their confession they named Md. Musa as the planner of the murder who was known as Babul Akhter's informers, according to the charge sheet.
On June 5, 2016, Babul Akhter's wife Mahmuda Khanam Mitu was shot and hacked to death by miscreants at the GEC Intersection of Chattogram city. At that time, she went to the GEC Intersection to drop her elder son in the school bus. Babul was in Dhaka at the time of the incident. Later, he came to Chattogram and filed a murder case against unknown miscreants.
Alongside the Panchlaish police station, the city detective police also investigated the case. They failed to file a charge sheet after nearly three years of investigation. Later, in January 2020, the PBI got the charge of investigating the case at the order of the court. On June 24, 2016, Babul Akhter was brought to the DB police office in Dhaka and interrogated for about 15 hours.
On May 11, 2021, Babul Akhter was taken into custody and interrogated by the PBI. Referring to the involvement of Babul Akhter in the investigation, a 575-page Final Investigation Report (FIR) was submitted to the court on May 12, 2021 for filing a case against him.
After filing of the FIR of Babul's case, he was made the main accused in the charge sheet of the case filed by his father-in-law. PBI claimed that Mahmuda Khanam Mitu was killed under a plot both planned and financed by Babul Akhter. He planned to kill his wife because of his extramarital affair with a woman. For this, he hired killers in exchange for Tk 399 thousand through a source to kill Mitu.
However, on September 8 last, Babul Akhter's lawyers filed a complaint against PBI Chief Banaj Kumar and five other police officials under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act, claiming that he was tortured while in the custody of the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI).

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