A Bangladeshi national, Philip Sangma, has been arrested in West Bengal for allegedly facilitating the illegal border crossing of the suspects involved in the killing of Osman Hadi in Bangladesh.
West Bengal Police’s Special Task Force (STF) has arrested a Bangladeshi national in connection with the murder of the 32-year-old Bangladeshi political activist Sharif Osman Hadi in Dhaka in December 2025, marking a significant breakthrough in the investigation. The accused, identified as Philip Sangma, is suspected to be a key middleman who facilitated illegal border crossings.
The arrest follows the interrogation of the primary suspects in the case, Faisal and Alamgir. During questioning in STF custody, the duo revealed that they had illegally entered India from Bangladesh through the Meghalaya border with the assistance of Sangma, a resident of Haluaghat in Bangladesh.
Acting on a tip-off, West Bengal Police commandos conducted a pre-dawn raid on Saturday near the Shantipur Bypass area and took Sangma into custody. During preliminary questioning, he confessed to operating a cross-border trafficking network that facilitated the movement of individuals between Haluaghat in Bangladesh and Dalupara in Meghalaya in exchange for money, according to police sources.
Sangma also admitted to helping Faisal and Alamgir infiltrate Indian territory through the forested terrain of Meghalaya. According to investigators, he later crossed into India himself to evade mounting pressure from the Bangladesh Police. At the time of his arrest, he was allegedly coordinating with Faisal and Alamgir to plan their illegal return to Bangladesh.
Philip Sangma was produced before a court on Saturday. The STF has been granted police custody of the accused to further probe the extent of the trafficking network and examine its possible links to other criminal activities. Investigators believe Sangma’s testimony will play a key role in reconstructing the movements of the suspects involved in the high-profile murder case.
