Man arrested 17yrs after killing a woman

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has finally arrested a wanted man sentenced to death in a 2005 Bagerhat murder case. He was in hiding for 17 years passing himself off as a Kabiraj or village medicine man.

The man arrested is Hemayet Khan alias Jahid Kabiraj, the fugitive in the case, said Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of Legal and Media Wing of Rab-3, on Thursday.

A RAB-3 team recently arrested the man from Dhaka's Keraniganj area on Wednesday.

Police found the decomposed body of Manu Begum packed in a sack near the house of the accused in Bagerhat district in January 2005.

The victim's sister filed a case with Bagerhat Police Station, accusing five people, including Zahid Kabiraj.

In 2009, a Bagerhat court gave Hemayet Khan alias Zahid Kabiraj, and his associate Sobhan, the death penalty.

Following the murder, Hemayet went into hiding and took shelter at a shrine in Jashore. He later fled to India and lived at the Ajmeer Sharif shrine there for three years, and then came back to the country to live in the capital Dhaka's Mirpur area.

During his long period of hiding, Hemayet alias Zahid continued to pass himself off as a Kabiraj.

RAB said women were the main target of his cheating. Sobhan was one of Hemayet alias Jahid Kabiraj's associates who brought Manu for 'treatment' of a mental illness, when she was really only suffering from a headache.

Manu had savings of more than one lakh taka from her clothing business and money sent by her husband from Dhaka. As per their plan, the two grabbed her savings and land documents and took thumb impressions on documents putting her on sedatives.

Jahid Kabiraj and Sobhan also tried to physically assault the woman and when she resisted they killed Manu, hacking her and slitting her throat.