On February 1, 2005, Ashraf suffocated his wife Sanjida Akhtar in front of his infant son. To cover up, he hung the body with a ceiling fan using the veil of his deceased wife. Later announced that his wife had committed suicide. Dramatically he ran for hiding and became a journalist. On the run for 18 years to avoid arrest, he worked for several local newspapers in Ashulia and became a member of the Ashulia Press Club.
Under Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code, Asraf was even arrested immediately after the incident. After 12 days of arrest, Ashraf got bail with the help of his father-in-law. Shortly after receiving bail, he suddenly went into hiding. Since then, he has never contacted his permanent address Noakhali and workplace, his children, or relatives.
Ashraf Hossain, alias Kamal gets sentenced to death in his wife murder case at Sonargaon police station at Narayanganj. He changed his name, address, and phone number to escape the arrest and court procedure and absconded for 17 years. Finally, Ashraf get caught.
RAB Media Center at Karwan Bazar in the capital on Friday (February 18, 2022) afternoon Commander Khandaker Al Moin (Director of RAB’s Law and Media Branch) presented this information.
How a murderer walks as a journalist?
Ashraf killed his wife and was arrested as suspicious. Father in law helped him get bail, and he was gone for hiding. What’s happened after then?
According to RAB, after the murder, he started living in Ashulia under a pseudonym. Hiding about the first marriage, Kamal got married for the second time. Besides, he chose the profession of journalism as a disguise to avoid arrest.
Accordingly, he joined the Ashulia area in 2006 as an assistant editor of the weekly Mahanagar Barta. In 2009 he became a member of the Ashulia Press Club. Later he was associated with Pratikshan magazine. He was elected as the Organizing Secretary of Ashulia Press Club in 2013-14. In 2015-16, he was elected as the assistant secretary of the club and was defeated.
He was again elected as an executive member in the 2017-18 terms. In 2020, he worked as a staff reporter for the daily newspaper Bangla. He was re-elected as the Organizing Secretary of Ashulia Press Club in 2021-22. He is currently a member of the Ashulia Press Club and works as a staff reporter for Swadesh Bichitra. During this long period, he has worked in the various garment and non-governmental organizations besides journalism. It opened a consultancy firm called Compliance Solutions. The firm used to do consultancy work audits of multiple organizations.
How does Murderer Ashraf gets caught?
Ashraf got bail and made a false representation that his wife had committed suicide. After having bail, he escaped.
Sonargaon police then filed a murder case.
The case investigation revealed that the ceiling fan’s height was shallow from the bed. It is impossible to commit suicide by hanging yourself with the ceiling fan. It appears that Ashraf Hossain killed his wife. The Sonargaon police filed a charge sheet against him in court as the evidence found in the overall investigation was initially proved against him under section 302/201 of the Penal Code. He was sentenced to death.
Khandaker Al Moin, commander of the RAB’s law and media branch, said the police had sought RAB’s help in arresting Kamal on December 21 last year. Given this, RAB intelligence increased surveillance to stock him.
In the case, there was a number registered in the accused’s name.
An operation was carried out in Barisal through that number, but others used it. Rab learned that the accused had not used the mobile number for a long time, and the authorities sold the SIM to another person as a replacement. In the end, RAB identified the footprint of the accused through social media and cyber patrol. After verifying the information on the ground, a team of RAB-11 arrested him from Savar in Dhaka on Thursday (February 17 2020) night.
Arrested Ashraf Hossain passed B.Com (Pass) in Accounting in 1996 and started working in an established cement company in Sonargaon in 2001. She got married in 2003 and started living in the company staff quarters.
