Three persons have been arrested in connection with the death of a 45-year-old mason, whose body was found hanging in the office of a union council member in Chattogram on Tuesday.

The deceased was identified as Nurul Alam, son of late Sharaf Ali of the Karnafuli area in the district's Charpatharghata union.

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Police said on Wednesday they had made the arrests after an FIR was filed in the case at the local police station on a complaint of torture and murder by the deceased's family members.

The arrestees have been identified as UP member Asiya Khatun, 48, Korban Ali, 26 and Mohammad Parvez, 23.

Sources told UNB that Nurul had taken an advance of Tk 15,000 from Korban for the construction of his shop in the locality. A few days later, Nurul took another Tk15000 from Korban, following which a dispute broke out between the two and construction work was stopped for some days.

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Mohammad Nazrul, son of the deceased, said, "The accused had called my father on Tuesday morning. We thought he went to the shop construction site. But later in the afternoon, I saw the police and local people in front of the office of Asiya."

"If my father had committed suicide, they would have informed us. But they reported the death to the police to sort it out. It is clear that they had planned my father's murder," he added.

However, Mohammad Dulal Mahmud, officer-in-charge of Karnafuli Police Station, said that the exact cause of death would be ascertained only after an autopsy. 

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"We have arrested the three on the basis of Nazrul's complaint. The accused told us that they had locked up Nurul in the female upazila council member's office and went out for lunch. When they returned they saw his body hanging from the ceiling," the OC said.

The body has been sent to the morgue of Chittagong Medical College and Hospital for autopsy, the police officer said.