The Special Task Force (STF) of the West Bengal Police has arrested a Bangladeshi national for allegedly helping the suspected killers of Bangladeshi youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi escape to India after the murder, police said on Sunday.
The arrest comes a week after the STF apprehended two suspects — Faisal Karim Masud (37), also known as Rahul, from Patuakhali, and Alamgir Hossain (34) from Dhaka — from Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
During interrogation, the duo told investigators that a man named Philip Sangma had helped them cross the international border into India through the Meghalaya sector.
Acting on a tip-off, the STF tracked down Sangma and arrested him on Saturday morning from the Shantipur Bypass area in Nadia district of West Bengal.
Preliminary interrogation revealed that Sangma, also a Bangladeshi national, allegedly facilitated illegal border crossings through the Haluaghat area in Bangladesh and Dalupara in Meghalaya in exchange for money, police officials said.
According to investigators, Sangma admitted that he helped Masud and Hossain enter India after the murder. Police also said he later entered India himself to evade arrest in Bangladesh and moved through several locations across the country.
“He remained in contact with the two accused and was trying to return to Bangladesh when he was apprehended,” an officer said.
Sangma was produced before a court on Sunday, which remanded him to police custody.
Hadi, 32, who served as spokesperson for the Inqilab Moncho, was shot in the head in Dhaka on December 12 last year. He was later flown to Singapore for treatment but succumbed to his injuries on December 18.
His death triggered political unrest in Bangladesh ahead of the general elections held on February 12. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Tarique Rahman, along with its allies, swept the polls by winning 216 of the 297 seats to form the government.
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