Missing Hindu lawyer's body found in B'desh; wife arrested

Bangladesh's police today recovered the bloodstained body of a prominent Hindu lawyer who went missing on Friday and arrested four persons, including his wife, suspecting their link to the murder.

Ratish Chandra Bhowmik, who fought the state's case in high-profile murder trials against Islamist extremists, went missing after he left his home in northwestern Rangpur district on Friday morning.

When the 58-year-old lawyer did not return home and his mobile phone was found switched off, his family reported about his disappearance to police and the Hindu community leaders.

"Their confessional statements led us to the dead body from an under construction building near Bhowmik's own house," said Benazir Ahmed, Director General of police anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion.

He added that the lawyer's wife, a school teacher, and one of her arrested colleagues were directly involved in the murder pointing figure to their extramarital relations.

Police earlier launched a massive campaign amid huge protests to trace out Bhowmik suspecting militant links to his disappearance on early Friday as he fought major murder trials against them as a key prosecution lawyer.

Police said the mobile phone records gave them the clue to the murder leading to his wife's arrest.

Bhowmik's disappearance came two weeks after seven operatives of outlawed Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were sentenced to death for murdering the caretaker of a Sufi shrine in November 2015.

Earlier, he appeared as a key prosecutor against five JMB extremists, who too were sentenced to death for the murder of Japanese farmer Hoshi Kunio in the same year.

Bhowmik was also a crucial witness to the trial of senior Jamaate-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam who was eventually sentenced to death by a special tribunal for committing crimes against humanity siding with the Pakistani troops during Bangladesh's 1971 Liberation War.

According to the police, Bhowmik had earlier refused the offer of an armed escort during the high-profile trials.

Bangladesh has been waging a campaign against JMB and other homegrown militant outfits after a re-grouped faction of JMB called Neo-JMB, stormed a Dhaka cafe in 2016 and massacred 23 people, mostly foreigners.