The murder of Anwarul Azim Anar, the Jhenaidah-4 lawmaker, was planned twice before, Detective Branch (DB) Chief Harun-or-Rashid said on Saturday.

“Three attempts were made to kill Azim. The initial two attempts failed, but the third one succeeded,” he told journalists at a press conference at the DB conference room in the capital.

The DB chief said, “An attempt was planned before the 7 January election. Another attempt was made on 17-18 January when Azim was in Kolkata. However, this attempt failed as he was staying in a hotel.

“Their initial intention was to make Azim unconscious and capture compromising images to extort a significant amount of money through blackmail.

“However, when he did not regain consciousness, they aborted the blackmail plan and proceeded to dispose of the body.”

In response to the question of why the murder took place, the DB chief said, “There may be several reasons behind the murder. Everyone involved in this murder is a member of the outlawed ultra-left organisation Purba Banglar Communist Party. The reason for the murder is not certain yet. It will be concluded after further investigation.”

Asked about the basis for concluding that Azim was murdered, he said, “We have obtained a lot of evidence. However, we are not revealing the findings for the sake of the investigation.”

“A murder case has been registered in Kolkata. In our country, there is a case of kidnapping.

The CID is investigating the case in Kolkata. They have definitely found clues. I will go shortly to Kolkata for the investigation of the murder case filed there,” he added.

MP Azim, who went missing from Kolkata on 14 May, was reported dead in Kolkata on 22 May.

He went there on 11 May for medical treatment.

DB to visit India to probe into the murder

The DB is set to travel to India to probe the murder of Anwarul Azim Anar.

Mohammad Harun-or-Rashid announced this development during a press conference.

He mentioned that a 4-member team from the Indian police is presently investigating the murder case.

The DB chief stated that he, along with several DB officers, would depart from Dhaka for India either Saturday night or in the morning today to conduct further investigations into the murder incident.