The family of Ismail Hossain, 50, whose body was recovered with scotch tape wrapped around his mouth from the Dhaka Elevated Expressway in Banani, suspects he was murdered by robbers who snatched Tk5 lakh he was carrying from a land sale.
Following a post-mortem examination at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue on Saturday afternoon, the body was handed over to his relatives.
However, earlier on Friday, police confirmed the identity of the deceased as Ismail Hossain from Hobdesh village under Jamalpur Sadar Upazila.
He had been living with his family in the Karalapara area of Kashimpur union in Gazipur. He has a son, Md Hasan, and a daughter, Sharmin.
Ismail had worked as a security guard in the Gazipur area but resigned nine months ago due to physical illness, including high blood pressure, which prevented him from standing for long periods.
His son, Hasan, said that the family was heavily in debt and was preparing for the upcoming wedding of Ismail’s younger daughter, Sharmin. To clear their debts and fund the wedding, Ismail had travelled alone to their village home four months ago to sell a piece of land.
He sold 11 decimals of homestead land for Tk10.5 lakh. After clearing debts of about Tk2.5 lakh and constructing a house at their village home, Ismail was returning to Dhaka last Thursday night with the remaining Tk5 lakh.
Hasan said that his father last spoke to the family on Thursday night, saying that he would board a Dhaka-bound vehicle from Jamalpur at 3am. On Friday morning, at around 8:30am, Hasan went to the Jirani bus stand in Ashulia to receive his father.
However, after repeatedly finding his father’s mobile phone switched off, Hasan returned home. Later on Friday afternoon, the family received news through the police that Ismail’s body had been found on the Dhaka Elevated Expressway.
The victim’s nephew, Md Mokaddes, questioned why Ismail would travel to Dhaka when his destination was Gazipur. “We suspect that muggers or a gang got wind of the cash he was carrying, abducted him, killed him to snatch the money, and dumped his body on the expressway as a safe dumping ground,” he said, adding that they could think of no other motive.
Earlier on Friday morning, police recovered the body with scotch tape wrapped around the mouth from the expressway, and later identified him using fingerprint analysis.
Banani Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Faridul Islam said that it is suspected Ismail was strangled to death before his body was dumped from a vehicle. He added that the police are analysing CCTV footage of the Elevated Expressway to solve the mystery.
