Henolux owner, wife for ‘instigating’ ex-BCL leader's suicide

The Rapid Action Battalion or RAB has arrested Nurul Amin, managing director of Amin Manufacturing Co Ltd which produces cosmetics under the brand name Henolux, and his wife Fatema Amin for allegedly instigating former Chhatra League leader Anisur Rahman alias Gazi Anis to die by suicide.

RAB spokesman ANM Emran Khan said they arrested the couple and also a director of the company from Uttara on Tuesday.

Anis’s brother Nazrul Islam started a case against them with Shahbagh Police Station earlier in the day.

The 50-year-old Anis, a former president of the Bangladesh Chhatra League’s Kushtia district unit, was a contractor when he died.

He was working as a contractor, but frustration over a company’s refusal to pay him Tk 12.6 million in dues allegedly drove him to set himself on fire outside the National Press Club in Dhaka and end his own life.

Md Ali, the man who took Anis to hospital, said the contractor had told him on the way that a company named Henolux owed him Tk 12.6 million, but was refusing to pay.

Anis had previously demanded the dues.

His brother Nazrul said the body will be taken to their village for burial after an autopsy.

According to its website, Nurul Amin is also a director of Amin Harbal, a sister concern of Amin Homeo Hall. Amin Herbal started its operation in 2008 as a producer of cosmetics and herbal products in Bangladesh.

The website says Amin’s company has been producing Henolux cosmetics products since 1989. It also has a food processing business.

In the case, Anis’s brother Nazrul said Anis became close to Amin and his wife Fatema in 2016. They had travelled abroad together.

In 2018, the couple had requested Anis to invest in the company, promising him a share of its profits.

Anis initially invested Tk 10 million in the company and then Tk 2.6 million he had borrowed from a friend, said Nazrul.

A preliminary deal was signed on Anis’s investment, but the couple delayed the finalisation of the deal.

Amin threatened Anis and tried to blackmail him when Anis tried to recover the funds, Nazrul alleged.

Anis later started a case against them in Kushtia, demanding Tk 300 million, including a share of profits.

Amin and Fatema called Anis and promised to repay him on Monday, but they finally declined, according to the case.

Nazrul said this refusal to pay and the rude behaviour of Amin and Fatema led Anis to take his own life.