Three people, including an inter-district bus driver, have been arrested in connection with the murder of a passenger whose body was dumped on the Dhaka Elevated Expressway after he was robbed of money meant for his daughter’s wedding.
The arrests were made during a joint operation by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police in the capital’s Mohakhali area.
The suspects are Sohel Rana, 40, driver of a Babul Paribahan bus operating on the Dhaka-Jamalpur route; Saju, 28, the bus supervisor; and Monir, 18, the bus helper.
Police also seized the bus involved in the incident.
The arrests came a day after the body of Ismail Hossain, 50, was found on the expressway in Banani with his mouth sealed with scotch tape.
Police later identified Ismail, a resident of Hobdesh village in Jamalpur Sadar upazila, through fingerprint analysis.
His family suspects he was killed by robbers who took Tk5 lakh he was carrying after selling a piece of land.
Ismail had been living with his family in Karalapara of Kashimpur union in Gazipur. He had previously worked as a security guard but resigned about nine months ago because of health problems, including high blood pressure.
His son Md Hasan said the family was struggling with debt and was also preparing for the marriage of Ismail’s younger daughter, Sharmin.
About four months ago, Ismail went to their village home to sell a piece of land to raise money for the family.
He sold 11 decimals of homestead land for Tk10.5 lakh. After paying around Tk2.5 lakh in debt and spending money to build a house in the village, he had about Tk5 lakh left, according to his family.
Ismail was returning to Dhaka with the money on Thursday night.
Hasan said his father called the family that night and told them he would board a Dhaka-bound vehicle from Jamalpur at around 3am.
The following morning, Hasan went to Jirani bus stand in Ashulia around 8:30am to receive him. But after repeatedly finding his father’s phone switched off, he returned home.
The family later received a call from police informing them that Ismail’s body had been recovered from the Elevated Expressway.
Ismail’s nephew Md Mokaddes questioned why he would have travelled to Dhaka when he was supposed to go to Gazipur.
He said the family suspected that a gang learned about the cash Ismail was carrying, abducted him and killed him before taking the money.
“They may have dumped his body on the expressway because they considered it a convenient place to dispose of it,” he said.
The family said they could not think of any other apparent motive for the killing.
Police recovered Ismail’s body from the expressway on Friday morning and found scotch tape wrapped around his mouth. His identity was subsequently established through fingerprint analysis.
Banani Police Station OC Faridul Islam said investigators suspected that Ismail had been strangled before his body was dumped from a vehicle.
Police were examining CCTV footage from the Elevated Expressway to establish the movements of the vehicle and identify those involved.
The arrests of the three suspects, including Babul Paribahan driver Sohel Rana, and the seizure of the bus could provide investigators with important leads into Ismail’s final journey and the circumstances of his death.
The suspects were later handed over to Banani Police Station for further legal action.
