MP Gazi Nazrul’s second wife found hanging at NAM Bhaban

The body of Mosammat Mariyam Khatun, 19, the second wife of Satkhira-4 MP Gazi Nazrul Islam, was recovered from a flat at NAM Bhaban in Dhaka on Sunday. Police recovered her body from Flat 203 on the third floor of Building 5 at the MP hostel complex under Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station. Police have not yet determined whether the death was a suicide or a homicide.

Tejgaon Division Deputy Commissioner of Police Md Ibn-e-Mizan said police initially saw the body hanging from a ceiling fan through a window. Forensic teams from the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) and Criminal Investigation Department (CID) were called to the scene before police entered the room and began collecting evidence.

A police official said the scene was secured for forensic examination. The body is expected to undergo an autopsy after an inquest, while investigators will examine evidence from the scene to determine the circumstances surrounding the death.

According to a police account cited by local media, Gazi Nazrul had lunch with his two wives before they went to separate rooms at around 3:30pm. He later found the door to Mariyam’s room locked and saw her through a window before informing police. The account has not established how the death occurred.

The case has drawn wider attention because Mariyam had recently been publicly identified by Gazi Nazrul as his second wife. The issue came into the spotlight in July after a private video involving the MP and a young woman circulated on social media. Gazi Nazrul subsequently said the woman was Mariyam and that they had married on June 17 with his first wife’s consent.

The marriage later became the subject of questions over documents and information concerning the marriage date and kabinnama. Some of the information circulating at the time could not be independently verified.

Gazi Nazrul was expelled from Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami on July 22 after the party said an organisational investigation had found evidence of “moral misconduct”. The party also informed the Election Commission of the decision.

Police said the investigation into Mariyam’s death is ongoing and that forensic examination, the autopsy and other evidence will be necessary before determining the cause and manner of death. No immediate statement was available from Gazi Nazrul or his family regarding Mariyam’s death.