HC orders recording statement of children over Mitu murder

The High Court has ordered the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to record the statements of the two children of former Chattogram Police superintendent Babul Akter in his wife's murder case, reports UNB.

A HC bench of justices Jahangir Hossain and Shahed Nuruddin on Wednesday asked the PBI to go to Magura and record the statements of the two children at the Magura District Social Service Office.

Advocate Sishir Monir appeared for the petitioner while deputy attorney general Sarwar Hossain Bappi represented the state.

On May 12, 2021, PBI detained Chattogram's former police superintendent Babul Akter after allegedly establishing his involvement in the murder of his wife, Mahmuda Khanam Mitu, in 2016. He is currently in jail.

On June 5, 2016, unidentified assailants gunned down Mitu at the port city's GEC intersection while she was going to drop her son Mahir Akhter, 7, for a bus of Chittagong Cantonment Public School and College.

Soon after the crime, Babul had lodged a complaint with Panchlaish Police against three unidentified men.

Later, Chattogram Metropolitan Police arrested four men, including Abu Nasur Gunu, Shah Zaman alias Robin, Md Anwar and Md Motaleb Mia alias Wasim, from different places in connection with the murder.

Of them, Anwar and Wasim gave confessional statements before a magistrate, implicating seven people, including Musa who directly took part in the killing, Mohammad Rashed and Nabi.

During the course of the probe, police had also arrested "arms supplier" Ehteshamul Haque Bhola and his assistant Md Monir and seized a pistol from their possession.

Cops had also nabbed Musa's elder brother Saidul Shikder Shakur and Shahjahan for providing a motorbike that was used in the murder. But on July 4, 2016, Nabi and Rashed were killed in a gunfight with police in Rangunia.

The case was transferred to the PBI in 2019, after Mitu's father, himself a retired police officer, filed a complaint against the CMP's mishandling of the case.