Panna had about $20 million when he fled to India: relatives claim

Former Bangladesh Chhatra League general secretary Ishaq Ali Khan Panna's relatives claimed that he had a huge amount of dollars with him when he fled from Bangladesh to India. United News of India (UNI) reported this in a report. However, no currency was found when the body was recovered, said Giri Prasad, chief of the East Jaintia Hills District Police.

He said, we do not have any information about Orthakadi. When we recovered the body, no money was found except for a Bangladeshi passport and a smartwatch. Panna's body is currently at the Kheyhariat Civil Hospital morgue.

Stating that no one has contacted yet to collect the body, Prasad said, the family members will have to approach the Meghalaya government to get the body and it will be handed over through diplomatic channels.

Earlier on Thursday, Meghalaya Police of India officially announced the recovery of Panna's body. According to a press release of the organization, on August 26, Panna's half-molten body was recovered from a betel nut orchard in Dona Bhoi village of East Jaintia Hills. That area is one and a half kilometers away from the Bangladesh-India border.

Citing the police, NDTV wrote that Panna's identity was identified from the passport found in the dead body. The post-mortem report stated the cause of her death as suffocation. There are also multiple injury marks on the body. The post-mortem report mentions a cut and scar on the forehead. His body has been sent for forensic examination.

Meanwhile, a member of Panna's family told UNI that they have already contacted the Bangladesh High Commission in India to bring the body to Bangladesh. Although the Meghalaya Police reported that Panna's body was recovered on August 26, her nephew Laikuzzaman Talukdar Mintu claimed on August 24 – others who were with her uncle said that her uncle died after slipping down a hill in Shillong that morning.

Ishaq Ali Khan Panna, a resident of Kaukhali Upazila of Pirojpur, was elected the Central General Secretary of Chhatra League in 1994. After the Awami League conference in 2012, he became the co-editor of the party's central sub-committee. Panna's wife Irene Parveen Bandhan died of cancer in 2016. Irene was Deputy Secretary and VP of Dhaka University Shamsunnahar Hall. The couple has a son named Eftesham Aftari Ariyan.

Bangladesh /KH