Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has revealed that arrestee Irfan murdered the seven people onboard fertiliser-laden vessel in the Meghna River out of anger after being deprived of wages for long and misconduct with him by the vessel’s master Golam Kibira.
Major Sakib Hossain, deputy commandant of the RAB-11 in Cumilla, disclosed this at a press briefing in Cumilla on Wednesday.
He said Irfan, son of Jagodish Mandol of Bagerhat’s Fakirhat upazila, used to work as a helping-hand of the vessel’s staff.
The RAB official said they recovered a hand glove, two empty packets of sleeping pills, seven mobile phones of the deceased, a blood-stained jeans pant from the procession of Akash Mondal alias Ifran who was arrested from Bagerhat’s Chitalmari upazila.
Major Sakib informed that the vessel’s master Kibria didn’t pay wages to Irfan for the past eight months and used to misbehave with him, causing anger to the accused.
From this point, the accused hit upon a plan to kill the master and bought three packets of sleeping pills from a Pabna Bazar when the vessel anchored there, the RAB officer said.
The accused made the master and others senseless by feeding the sleeping pills after mixing with meals, he said.
Read: Killings on vessel: Families demand investigation, justice
First, he murdered the master with a Chinese axe wearing hand gloves and later the six others when they witnessed the matter, Major Sakib said.
After killing all, the accused took the vessel near Eshanbala Char in Chandpur's Haimchar upazila from the Meghna River and anchored it there, he said, adding that later Irfan fled the scene by a trawler.
On the other hand, the vessel’s owner Mahabub Morshed filed a murder case accusing some unidentified people with the relevant police station, said Haimchar police station’s officer-in-charge Md Mohiuddin Suman on Wednesday.
On Monday afternoon, the Coast Guard and River Police recovered five bodies and rescued three injured victims from the vessel. Later, two of the injured succumbed to their injuries at the hospital.
Read more: Chandpur tragedy: RAB arrests an accused from Bagerhat
The bodies were handed over to families after completing legal procedures on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Industries on Tuesday formed a four member probe body headed by an additional secretary and asked to submit a report within five working days.
Family members of the victims claimed that the killings were planned and demanded justice. They made the demand while receiving the bodies from Chandpur Sadar Hospital on Tuesday afternoon.
The deceased were Golam Kibria ,55, captain of the vessel hailinh from Faridpur, his nephew Sheikh Sabuj,35, a sailor, Aminul Munshi, 40, helmsman from Narail district, Majedul,16, a sailor from Magura Sajibul Islam ,26, sailor from Magura, Salahuddin,40, an engineer from Narail and Kazi Rana 24, its cook from Munshiganj.