'Came from broken family, got entrapped in Shahin's lavish life': Celesty tells court

In a long-awaited confessional statement, Celesty Rahman, one of the accused in the murder of Jhenaidah-4 MP Anwarul Azim Anar, said she was the one to receive the MP in Kolkata but wasn't aware that he would be murdered.

"I came from a broken family and got entrapped in the lavish life of Aktaruzzaman Shahin [alleged mastermind behind the murder] and his groups... I knew the MP from before. But I wasn't aware of the pre-planned murder," Celesty, 22, told the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court on Monday (3 June) night.

Hailing from Tangail's Nagarpur, the 22-year-old is a resident of the capital's Uttara. She met Shahin through a mutual friend a few years back.

Her mother Romana Rahman separated from her father Arifur Rahman, a buying house businessman, a decade ago. Since then, she has been living with her father's new family in Uttara.

Shahin financed her travelling abroad many times before and they had visited Kolkata several times, Celesty told the court.

Shahin, believed to be residing in the United States at present, had asked Celesty to receive MP Azim in Kolkata. She had gone to Kolkata with Shahin on 30 April. 

According to Celesty's confessional statement, Shahin had invited the lawmaker to a business meeting in the Kolkata flat over a video call, during which Celesty waved to the MP.

"Shahin later returned to Bangladesh on 10 May without informing the lawmaker that he was leaving Kolkata," the confessional statement, seen by The Business Standard reads.

"I was left along with the other accused in the case, Shimul Bhuiyan alias Syed Amanullah, Jihad Hawlader, Mostafizur Rahman, Md Siam Hossain, Faisal Ali and others in a Kolkata flat," said Celesty.

She returned to Dhaka along with Shimul on 15 May, two days after the murder.  

How the murder took place

"First they [Shahin and other accused] tried to blackmail the MP and made him unconscious using chloroform after entering the flat at Sanjeeva Garden in Kolkata.

"Before that they had a heated argument and a brawl took place. Some slapped the MP. When the MP fell unconscious his clothes were stripped off and they took some photos and videos of him in that state. Later, when he didn't regain his senses, Aman uncle [Shimul Bhuyian] and Jihad Hawlader dismembered his body with Siam and Faisal's help," Celesty told the court in a sensational description of the murder.

According to Celesty, the said accused then flushed the body flesh of the MP from the washroom for hours.

"I heard the sound of a toilet being flushed repeatedly on the second floor of the triplex flat. I was downstairs. Based on that information, detectives asked the Kolkata CID to conduct a search in the sewerage line and septic tank of the flat," she added.

Celesty said accused Siam disposed of the MP's bones.

"He dumped the bones of the lawmaker into a canal. He then roamed around with the lawmaker's phones to confuse law enforcers about the whereabouts of Azim.

"This was why Azim's phone was found active until May 16 night. Several text messages were sent to different numbers from Azim's phone, which said the lawmaker was going to Delhi and was in meetings with VIPs there,"  Celesty informed the court. 

"Siam went to India via Nepal and returned to the Himalayan country after killing the lawmaker," she said.

Dhaka additional chief metropolitan magistrate Md Tofazzal Hossain recorded her confessional statement.

Bangladesh's detective branch officials and West Bengal CID in a joint drive recovered some flesh and pieces of bones, and hair from a septic tank of the high-end condominium residential Sanjeeva Garden, where the MP was murdered in a flat in the residential area in New Town of Kolkata.