Relatives of the two deceased found in the parking area at Sirajul Islam Medical College in Mouchak on Monday suspect they have been murdered over a travel scam.
They have been killed over a dispute regarding the return of money given to a travel agency for going abroad. The victims’ relatives made these allegations while speaking at the Dhaka Medical College morgue on Tuesday afternoon.
The deceased were identified as friends Mizanur Rahman and Zakir Hossain.
According to the police report, Sub-Inspector (SI) Awlad Hossain of Ramna Police Station said there were multiple swellings and blisters on their bodies. Their faces were swollen and bloodstained. No initial cause of death was mentioned in the report.
At the morgue, Zakir’s father, Md Abu Taher, said, “My son had no quarrel with anyone and was not involved in politics. I don’t know who killed him. However, two years ago, I gave money to a local broker for my son to go to America.
The broker took them to Fazlu, a man from a travel agency in Paltan, Dhaka. Altogether, we gave about Tk25 lakh at the time. Zakir was taken to Sri Lanka, from where he was supposed to be sent illegally to America. But that did not happen. Later, after paying some more money, we brought him back to Bangladesh ourselves.
Since then, when we asked Fazlu for the money back, he would promise to return it after some time. Despite repeatedly chasing him, we did not get the money. Because they demanded money, they even beat my son once. Recently, the broker in our area signed a stamped document stating that the money would be returned on the 10th of this month at the Dhaka agency. But on that very date, Zakir was killed. We believe they are responsible for this incident. No one else could have done it.”
Meanwhile, Mizanur’s nephew Md Riad said, “My uncle used to run a sand business in the village, but later left it and started a fish farm. He was also not involved in politics.
Zakir drove a private car and often took Mizanur along, even teaching him to drive. On Saturday night, the two of them, the car owner, and the owner’s relative came to Dhaka from the village.
The owner’s relative had a flight abroad that night. They were supposed to return to the village the next day with a patient from our village who was admitted to Sirajul Islam Medical College. We don’t know what happened after that, but it’s clear they were killed.”
The private car’s owner Zobaid Al Mahmud Sourav said he and the two victims were from the same upazila.
He had been in the car business for 11 years, and Zakir had been driving his private car on rent for the past three months.
On Saturday night, Sourav’s relative was flying to Italy, whom Zakir and Mizanur had come to Dhaka to drop off. After dropping his relative at the airport, the three went to Sirajul Islam Medical College to see a patient from their village who was supposed to be discharged at 11am on Sunday.
Sourav decided to return to the village by bus early in the morning, leaving Zakir and Mizanur to bring the patient back later.
He even bought Zakir’s bus ticket. On Sunday afternoon, Sourav called Zakir to check if they had returned with the car, but Zakir didn’t answer. He kept trying but couldn’t reach him.
The next day, Monday, he still couldn’t make contact. In the afternoon, he planned to come to Dhaka, but before that, at around 3pm, Ramna police called to inform him that two bodies had been found inside his car in the hospital’s parking area.
Sourav added, “Zakir never took drugs, except for betel nuts. Mizanur only smoked cigarettes. They had no other bad habits. I have no idea how they died.”