Police recover 47 human skulls, numerous bones; 4 sent to jail
Earlier, Tejgaon police arrested the four members of the gang
A Dhaka court has sent four members of an alleged organised human skeleton smuggling gang to jail in connection with the recovery of 47 human skulls and a large quantity of bones from the capital's Tejgaon area.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Ehsanul Islam passed the order today (10 March) after a hearing, confirmed Sub-Inspector (SI) Arif Reza of the prosecution department.
The accused are Kazi Zahurul Islam alias Soumik, 25; Md Abul Kalam, 39; Asadul Munshi alias Jasim alias Ershad, 32; and Faisal Ahmed, 26.
The investigation officer of the case, SI Shahadat Hossain Nafis of Tejgaon Police Station, produced the accused before the court and sought an order to keep them in jail.
Earlier, Tejgaon police arrested the four members of the gang. A case was filed with Tejgaon Police Station by SI Miraj Uddin against them.
According to the case statement, a team from Tejgaon Police Station received a tip-off that a person was staying in front of Gate No 1 in Monipuripara with human skeletons collected from a graveyard for the purpose of selling them.
Based on the information, police conducted a drive around 1:45am yesterday (9 March) and arrested Zahurul Islam alias Soumik, recovering a human skeleton from his possession.
Following his information, police conducted another raid in front of Tejgaon College at around 7:10am and arrested Abul Kalam and Asadul Munshi. Two human skeletons were recovered from them during the operation.
Later, based on further information provided by the detainees, police conducted a raid at the hostel of Sapporo Dental College and Hospital in the Uttara West area at around 3:30pm and arrested Faisal Ahmed.
During the raid, police recovered 44 human skeletons scattered in the hostel room.
During primary interrogation, the accused confessed that the gang used to secretly dig up graves from different cemeteries across the country, including Gazipur, steal human skeletons and sell them to buyers at high prices, said police.
The accused Md Abul Kalam faces 21 separate cases across the country, while Asadul Munshi faces two cases.
