Keraniganj: The man the body of whom was recovered from the Buriganga River here on Tuesday has been identified as Jashore BNP vice-president Abu Bakar Abu.

Victim’s nephew Ashiquzzaman identified the body at Mitford Hospital on Wednesday night, said officer-in-charge of South Keraniganj Police Station Shah Zaman.

He said the body was handed over to family members around 11:30pm, reports the UNB.

Ashiquzzaman said South Keraniganj Police Station made a post on its Facebook page on Thursday with the image of the body of a man aged around 50 with a call to contact it if anyone knows his identity.

He said they primarily identified the victim as Abu, also chairman of Mazidpur union parishad in Keshabpur upazila of Jashore.

Later, relatives along with Keshabpur upazila BNP president Abul Hossan Azad and former mayor of Keshabpur Abdus Samad Biswas came to the capital and identified the body at Mitford Hospital.

Police recovered the body from the Buriganga River at Telighat of Keraniganj on Tuesday evening.

Ashiquzzaman said a group of miscreants kidnapped the BNP leader from Bijoynagar in the capital on November 18 when he went to Dhaka to collect BNP nomination form to contest the upcoming general election from Jashore-6 constituency with the party ticket.

The alleged kidnappers called Ashiquzzaman and demanded Tk 1.50 lakh as ransom which was paid through mobile money transfer window bKash the following day, he said.

However, the miscreants demanded Tk 50,000 more and they paid Tk 20,000 following negotiation, the victim’s nephew said, adding that the kidnappers’ mobile phone was found switched off after 12:30pm on November 19.

Meanwhile, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Thursday night alleged that law enforcers brutally killed Abu and dumped the body into the river.

He came up with the allegation during a press briefing at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office.