Bite mark helps police identify killers

Two security guards of the Banani residential building where Chinese citizen Jianhui Gao had been living strangled him to death. There was a scuffle between the victim and the attackers, and Gao eventually bit the left hand of security guard Abdur Rauf.

The bite mark revealed the entire murder mystery in the end, said police.

After nearly one year of investigation, the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) submitted the charge sheet to court, Sunday, accusing the security guard duo. Detectives said the guards – Abdur Rauf and Enamul Haque – killed the Chinese citizen to steal his belongings and to become rich overnight. 

The duo had already given confessional statements in a court.

Jianhui Gao used to live at a rented apartment in Dhaka's Banani. He used to supply construction materials for the Padma Bridge and Payra Port. In December last year, police recovered his body from a shallow-grave at the backyard of the residential building.

Subsequently, a murder case was filed with Banani police station. 

Apart from police, DMP Detective Branch (West) began a parallel investigation into the murder case. 

Detectives initially held the security guards – Rauf and Enamul – of the building, and found a bite mark on Rauf's hand.

During interrogation, Rauf initially denied involvement in the killing, but later confessed to being involved in the murder.

Mashiur Rahman, deputy commissioner of DMP Detective Branch, told The Business Standard that they prepared the charge sheet after verifying their findings with the forensic reports and conversations with the victim's family.

How the murder mystery unravelled

Investigators said they talked to the slain businessman's driver, interpreter, manager, and business friend to find out if there was any business conflict which led to the murder.

After talking to them, police learned that Gao did not mix with many people. He had no friends except Cici – a Chinese citizen. Therefore, police had to take the "murder over a business conflict" possibility off the table.

In the meantime, as the closed-circuit television camera footage of the building was also not much help, the investigators visited the scene time and again.

Investigating officers assumed that if a tenant were killed in their apartment, and buried in the backyard, on-duty security guards would have had to notice something. From this assumption, they detained security guard Jay Nandi who was on-duty on that night.

Interrogating Jay Nandi, police gleaned two other names – Rauf and Enamul – who were also on-duty on that night.

 Murder due to jealousy

Rauf and Enamul got to know each other after starting to work at the Banani building. Earlier, Enamul was a veterinary physician in his village after completing his higher secondary school examination. At his ancestral home, Rauf was a farm worker.

According to police, after starting the job, the exuberant and expensive lifestyle of people in the upscale area of Dhaka made them jealous as they were already upset with their salaries.

To change their fortunes overnight, they targeted the Chinese citizen as they assumed Gao was a rich businessman and thought he might have a lot of cash in his apartment, said police.  

They took the night shift on the day of the incident as planned. They knocked on the door and asked for a glass of water. After entering his apartment, they strangled Gao to death with a towel.

They took about Tk3.5 lakh cash from the apartment and shared it. And they gave Tk10,000 to Jay Nandi to remain tight-lipped.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (Gulshan zone) of DMP Detective Branch Md Golam Saqlain told TBS that they recovered the towel, mobile phone of the victim and Tk1.23 lakh of the looted cash after arresting the duo.