Suspects involved in the murder of Bangladeshi expatriate Luthfar have revealed to the police that they murdered their colleague over ‘attempted same sex relations’ by the victim.
While briefing the media on the investigation of Luthfar’s murder, Head of Serious and Organized Crime Department Hassan Shifau said Luthfar had attempted to have sex with his male colleagues. It is believed that Luthfar was murdered due to his colleagues’ disapproval over his unwanted sexual advances.
Shifau said Luthfar was strangled to death on the port side of ‘Kurimagu’, the boat where the men worked on. While some passerby gathered at the area after hearing the struggle taking place during his murder, Noorul Islam, the man who strangled Luthfar told them a false story stating that the commotion they heard was Luthfar arguing with his wife on the phone.
When the people started gathering near the boat, the two accomplices to his murder hid near Luthfar’s body, said Shifau. The people who heard the commotion relayed to the captain of the boat that they had heard Luthfar being murdered, added Shifau.
The police further revealed that the suspects had confessed to tying a rope around Luthfar's dead body and lowering him into the water, in case someone comes on board the vessel. After re-surfacing the victim, they changed his clothes and laid him at his sleeping area to make it look as if he was asleep to throw off any suspecting person who may come aboard the boat.
Confessing to the police how they got rid of the body, the crew members said they tied three loaded sacks to Luthfar's body using ropes, and tied empty 20 liter cooking oil cans onto their bodies before swimming out with the dead body.
However, the loaded sacks weighed down Luthfar's body to the point that the perpetrators were unable to swim forward while dragging the body. At this point, they detached two sacks and proceeded to sink the body.
While four expatriates have been arrested in connection to the murder, they had initially told the police that they had released the body to the sea instead of sinking it. The police said the captain of the boat inquired about Luthfar's whereabouts after he could not be located as the boat prepared to depart from dock early next morning. The suspects told the captain that they were not aware of where Luthfar was. Luthfar was last seen on the night of 21st April, around 9.30pm.
After Luthfar's disappearance, the council of Lhaimagu island, where the bat was docked, began efforts to locate him him. Shifau said police divers were able to recover the sacks and ropes from under the water, as well as human remains. All evidence point that remains discovered underwater were of Luthfar's.
It was previously rumored that Luthfar's murder was over a financial spat between the workers. However, the police said no cash was found on the boat. The expatriates working on the boat are tradesmen who buy vegetables from the islands in the atoll and sell it in capital Male'.
