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KOLKATA: Bengal Police’s STF arrested a Bangladeshi national accused of helping two prime suspects, in the murder of Bangladeshi youth activist Sharif Osman Hadi in Dhaka, illegally cross into India after the fatal Dec 12 attack, reports Tamaghna Banerjee.Philip Sangma was picked up from Nadia district based on intelligence inputs. Investigators claimed Sangma acted as a border tout and had facilitated the illegal entry of Faisal Karim Masud and Alamgir Hossain, who were arrested from Bongaon, a city close to the Bangladesh border, on March 8. They are the prime suspects in Hadi’s murder. Sangma was produced in a court on Saturday and remanded in police custody.

Police said that Sangma’s role came to light during the duo’s interrogation. They revealed that Sangma allegedly helped them cross the border through the Haluaghat (Bangladesh)-Dalupara (Meghalaya) route. They then travelled across India, trying to evade arrest. “Sangma admitted to operating as a border tout and facilitating illegal migrants to cross the border through the Haluaghat-Dalupara route in exchange for money,” a senior officer said.Police said Sangma also confessed to arranging the entry of Masud and Hossain. Sangma later entered India illegally through the same route amid pressure from the law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh and stayed at several locations to avoid detection.