CUMILLA, Dec, 25: Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has revealed that arrested Akash Mondal alias 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.
Maj Sakib Hossain, deputy commandant of the RAB-11 in Cumilla, disclosed this at a press briefing in Cumilla on Wednesday. He said Akash, son of Jagodish Mandol of Bagerhat's Fakirhat upazila, used to work as a helping-hand on the vessel.
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, who was arrested from Bagerhat's Chitalmari upazila.
Maj Sakib informed that the vessel's master Kibria didn't pay wages to Akash for the past eight months and used to misbehave with him, causing anger to the accused.
Akash alias Irfan is the son of Jagadish Mondal from Bagerhat's Fakirhat. He had been working on the ship for eight months.
RAB seized a pair of hand gloves, a bag, empty sachets of sleeping pills, seven mobile phones, including five that belonged to the dead, two belonging to Akash and a blood-stained pair of jeans.
From this point, the accused hit upon a plan to kill the vessel 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 those with their meal, he said.
"The workers at the ship did not get holidays and salary, bonus on time. Master Kibria used to keep whatever money they received for himself instead of paying the workers who deserved them, Akash (Irfan) said," Maj Sakib said, citing information received during primary interrogation.
"He also said that the master used to yell at the workers without sufficient reason and would drop them from the ship if he disliked anyone. He didn't even pay their dues." Irfan asked others to protest but no one dared to come forward, he told RAB.
First, he murdered the master with a Chinese axe wearing hand gloves and later the six others when they witnessed the incident, Maj 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 Akash fled the scene by a trawler.
The vessel's owner Mahabub Morshed filed a murder case accusing some unidentified people with the police station concerned, said Haimchar police station 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.
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 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.
Three separate investigation committees have been formed by the Ministry of Industries, district administration and police over the incident. On Tuesday, Md Mahbub Morshed filed a case with Haimchar Police Station on behalf of the owners of the ship. Ten unidentified people were named in the case.
