Land dealer Ekhlas killing: DB arrests 5 suspects including industrialist mastermind

The Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has solved a case over the murder of Hazaribagh land dealer Ekhlas and arrested five people, including an industrialist and two others involved in the incident.

The arrestees were identified as Monir Hossain alias Leather Monir alias Company Monir, who is the industrialist and the alleged mastermind, A. Rahman alias Rahman Kallu, Md. Eshak, Faisal, and Jhantu Mollah.

Several teams of the DB's Lalbagh division conducted simultaneous drives in Jeshore and Magura districts, Keraniganj, Elephant Road and Airport area in the city and arrested the five suspects.

Two Bangladeshi passports, a mobile phone, Tk22,000 and 5,000 Indian rupees were recovered from Monir's possession during the raids.

Briefing reporters at the DMP Media Center in Minto Road of the city, Additional Commissioner and DB Chief Harun Or Rashid made the disclosure.

Earlier on 28 June, land trader Ekhlas left his Hazaribagh home at around 10:30 pm and did not return. Relatives searched for him in different places and registered a GD at the local police station. 

The next day, June 29, was Eid ul Azha. The day after Eid-ul-Azha, June 30, the police of Kamrangirchar police station recovered the body of a person in a white plastic bag on the western side of the barbed wire fence of Hazaribagh Fire Service Station. Then Ekhlas's relatives went there and identified the body. A murder case was filed with Kamrangichar police station on the same day.

Briefing reporters, the DB chief Harun said Monir was the main planner of this murder. Ekhlas was killed over a land dispute.

Harun said Ekhlas owned a big piece of land, which was worth billions of taka. Company Monir tried to grab the land in various ways. Knowing this, Ekhlas filed several cases with the local police station and registered various complaints to the Dhaka District Commissioner's office. As a result, after failing to take the land, Monir planned to kill Ekhlas.

Industrialist and leather trader Monir owns several tanneries in Hazaribagh and Savar areas. He is also a land grabber and broker. Monir had earlier completed various land deals through Ekhlas at different times. It was Monir who planned and ordered this murder.

The DB chief also said that Monir wanted to flee the country after the killing. The 'Cutout method', an often used tactic in underworld killings in an attempt to erase all ties to a killing to its mastermind, was used. After the murder, the killers fled to Thailand and Calcutta through Chittagong airport. On July 20, while returning to Dhaka by air from Thailand, Jhantu Molla was arrested with his passport from the airport area.

Jhantu Molla is the cashier of Md. Monir Hossain aka Company Monir. Jhantu is in 4-day police remand by the court.