Wife’s affair behind Rangpur lawyer murder: Rab

Lawmen are linking the wife in the murder of special public prosecutor Rathish Chandra Bhowmik, whose dead body was found at an under-construction building in Rangpur town today.

“His wife Snigdha Sarkar Dipa and her associates are linked to the murder,” Benazir Ahmed, director general of elite force Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), said in a press briefing in Rangpur.

The murder was planned around two months back, said the DG. 

As a reason, he is pointing fingers at a “family feud centering extra-marital affair of Dipa”.

After primary assessment of the dead body, which was dug from an under-construction building site in Tajhat Mollapara in the wee hours of today, the lawmen said Rathish was murdered on March 29.

A widely-renowned personality for involvement with various social organisations in Rangpur, there was an uproar from people from various quarters demanding immediate trace to his whereabouts.

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Rangpur spl PP 'missing'

Last night, police detained the wife. Following her information, lawmen dug out the body.

Meanwhile, Dipa’s colleague Kamrul Islam and his brother Motiur Rahman were arrested yesterday for their alleged involvement in the disappearance of the public prosecutor.

A lawyer by profession, Rathish was also involved in other activities. He was the general secretary of Sammilito Sangskritik Jote of Rangpur district unit, vice president of Rangpur District Lawyers' Association, law affairs secretary of district Awami League (AL), and a trustee of Hindu, Buddhist, Christian Oikya Parishad in the district.

Rathish was the PP of the cases filed over the murder of Japanese national Hoshi Kunio and Khadem Rahmat Ali on October 3 and November 10 in 2015 respectively.

The special judge court of Rangpur sentenced five members of militant Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) to death in Japanese national Hoshi Kunio murder case on February 28 last year. The same court convicted seven JMB militants to death for killing Khadem Rahmat Ali on March 18 this year. Besides, he was a witness in the war crimes case against Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azaharul Islam, who was sentenced to death, by the ICT court.

Soon after he went missing, different organisations waged demonstration demanding the rescue of the missing lawyer.