Matin held at Benapole

Detective Branch of police last night arrested MA Matin in connection with the murder of Italian national Cesare Tavella, said a high official of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).

Police arrested Matin, younger brother MA Quayum, Dhaka city BNP joint convener and former BNP-backed ward commissioner, at Benapole border in Jessore while he was attempting to leave the country.

Matin's name came up in the confessional statement given by Minhajul Arefin Russell alias Bhagne Russell, one of the four suspects already in custody in connection with the murder, said Muntasirul Islam, DMP deputy commissioner (media).

However, Matin's family members claimed that plainclothes men identifying themselves as detectives picked up Matin from in front of his Madhya Badda home on October 20 evening.   

Tavella, 50, was shot dead by armed criminals in the capital's Gulshan diplomatic zone on September 28. He was working as a project manager of a Netherlands-based NGO.

The other three arrested in this connection are Tamjid Ahmed Rubel, Sakhawat Hossain Sharif, and Russell Chowdhury. Just like Bhagne Russell, they are all from Badda.  

After their arrest, DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia had said, “We have information about the so-called Boro Bhai [big brother]. After his arrest, it will be known who are backing him.”

Detective sources had then claimed that the “big brother” is a mid or lower-mid level leader of the BNP.

MA Quayum late last month told The Daily Star, “After detectives picked up my younger brother [MA Matin], and the home minister's statement that a big brother hired and financed hitmen to kill the Italian citizen, I feared that the government was going to implicate me in the matter to malign my image and that of the BNP.”

Quayum alleged that the government wanted to make him the “scapegoat” by branding him the “Boro Bhai”.

Just a few hours after his talks with this paper, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told The Daily Star and a number of other media outlets that Quayum was that big brother.