The Bangladesh Police are set to conduct DNA tests on blood specimens found in a flat in New Town, near Kolkata, to ascertain whether the missing Bangladeshi MP Anwarul Azim Anar was murdered, an officer revealed on Tuesday.
Anar, a member of the Awami League, has been missing for two weeks, and suspicions have arisen that he was killed in the aforementioned flat, with his body parts subsequently disposed of in a nearby canal.
Should the body parts of the MP not be recovered, DNA tests will be carried out on the blood samples found in the flat.
These samples will then be compared with the DNA of one of Anar's relatives to establish his identity conclusively, paving the way for legal action, the investigating officer explained.
A team of three officers from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch, led by Chief Mohammad Harun-or-Rashid, is currently in Kolkata to probe Anar's disappearance.
Efforts to locate the missing MP's body parts resumed on Tuesday, with the Disaster Management Team of the Kolkata Police combing the Bagjola canal near Rajarhat.
However, heavy rainfall triggered by Cyclone Remal has complicated search efforts.
Authorities acknowledged the difficulty of finding the body parts given the elapsed time since the alleged crime occurred, the fragmentation of the remains, and the likelihood of them being consumed by aquatic creatures or carried away by the canal's current.
Nevertheless, divers have been deployed to assist in the search.
Meanwhile, police are scrutinising the drain pipes of the flat in question, suspecting that blood may have been drained from the bathroom where the murder is believed to have taken place.
The investigation into Anar's disappearance began after Gopal Biswas, an acquaintance of the Bangladeshi politician, filed a complaint with the local police on May 18.
Biswas reported that Anar had stayed at his residence upon arriving in Kolkata on May 12 for medical treatment.
Anar was last seen leaving Biswas's home for a doctor's appointment on May 13 but failed to return as scheduled, prompting Biswas to file a missing persons report on May 18.
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