Police have arrested a 21-year-old hotel employee in connection with the recovery of dismembered body parts of Md Obaidullah from several locations across the capital, officials said on Saturday night.
The arrest was made after analysing CCTV footage linked to the disposal of the body parts, according to Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
The detainee, identified as Shaheen Alam, worked at Hirajheel Hotel in Motijheel.
Police recovered a machete believed to have been used in the killing and a bicycle from his possession.
The victim, Md Obaidullah, was a resident of Shibpur upazila in Narsingdi and worked as a marketing officer at Gonoshashtho Homeo in Paltan.
According to police, Obaidullah was killed and his body was cut into seven pieces, which were later dumped at different key locations in the city.
On Friday at around 2am and again on Saturday morning, two severed legs and two hands were recovered from areas near Baitul Mukarram, the National Stadium and Kamalapur Railway Station.
Later on Saturday night, the victim’s head was recovered from a garbage dump in the Matuail area of Jatrabari.
In the early hours of Sunday, another body part was recovered from the Aminbazar area of Savar, bringing the total number of recovered pieces to six, while efforts to retrieve the remaining part are nearing completion.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Motijheel Division Deputy Commissioner Harun Or Rashid said the main perpetrator had been arrested and the motive behind the killing uncovered.
He said Obaidullah and Shaheen had been sharing a room, and the victim often asked Shaheen to carry out various personal errands.
Shaheen had grown resentful for several reasons, police said.
On the night of the incident, an argument broke out after Obaidullah began speaking loudly on the phone while Shaheen was trying to sleep.
In a fit of rage, Shaheen allegedly brought a machete from the kitchen and fatally attacked Obaidullah, the officer said.
After the killing, he cut the body into seven pieces, placed them in black polythene bags and transported them by CNG-run auto-rickshaw before dumping them at different locations in Dhaka.
Legal proceedings in connection with the murder are under way, the DMP official added.
