DB now waits for 'conclusive evidence'

Bakhtiar Alam

Investigators have found Bakhtiar Alam Rony's involvement in shooting and killing two people on April 14, but they await the ballistic report for conclusive evidence, said DMP spokesperson Monirul Islam.  

“At this stage of the probe, it can be said that Bakhtiar was in a black Prado car, bullets were fired from his licensed pistol and two people were killed in that shooting,” Monirul told journalists at the DMP media centre yesterday.

“Hopefully, we will get the ballistic report in two to four days and then we will have conclusive evidence,” he added.

For ballistic test, investigators sent the bullets to the CID on May 28 and the pistol on June 6.

Monirul, joint commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), also said once they receive the ballistic report, the investigators might seek fresh remand of Bakhtiar.

On Sunday, DB officials seized the black Prado car, believed to be owned by Bakhtiar's mother Pinu Khan, a lawmaker and general secretary of Mahila Awami League, from the flat allocated to her as an MP.

Monirul said they have scrutinised CCTV footage from roadside cameras and become sure that the black car was on the spot during the incident.

Investigators have also found out that apart from the driver and Bakhtiar, two more people were inside the car at that time. The two have been identified, he added.

Arrested on May 31, Bakhtiar told investigators that he had gone to a local bar in the evening of April 13 and a party at Sonargaon Hotel later that night, said DB officials.

Returning drunk from Sonargaon around 1:30am, he was “feeling suffocated” inside the car stuck in a traffic jam near Dilu Road, investigators quoted him as saying. Lowering the window, he fired four to five times.

One of the victims, rickshaw-puller Abdul Hakim, was hit by bullet in the abdomen. The bullet was removed at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, according to family and hospital sources. 

Hakim died 16 hours after the shooting.

Auto-rickshaw driver Yakub Ali too was hit once, in the right part of his chest. The bullet was pulled out from the body during autopsy at Dhaka Medical College morgue.

Yakub died on April 23.