Tumpa Abduction, Murder
Same gang killed her brother last May
The same gang that allegedly killed schoolgirl Tumpa after kidnapping her from the capital on February 14, had also killed the victim’s brother eight months ago, police are now suspecting.
The gang had been stalking Tumpa for three years, said the victims’ mother Khairunnahar Shikha.
Tumpa’s brother Al Kawsar Masud alias Babla once slapped a guy of the gang for stalking his sister in Segunbagicha of the capital, and 15 days later on May 31 last year Babla’s body was found floating in the Kakon River of Narsinghdi.
Ayesha Akhter Tumpa, 15, a student of class-X of Begum Rahima Adarsha High School in Segunbagicha, was found dead similarly floating in a canal at Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra (DND) dam on February 16.
Police are saying Tumpa had been abducted by a local gang of five to six stalkers of Segunbagicha, led by a local young man named Asaduzzaman alias Hridoy, and she was raped before being murdered.
She was abducted around 9:00pm when she was returning home by a rickshaw from Dhaka University campus after celebrating the Valentine’s Day with her boyfriend Sayeedur Rahman Sayeed, 18, a student of Sheikh Borhan Uddin Post Graduate College.
Investigation officer of the Tumpa killing case, Sub-inspector Moktar Hossain of Shahbagh Police Station, suspects that the gang kidnapped, raped, and killed Tumpa out of spite, because she had celebrated the Valentine’s Day with Sayeed, instead of them. He also suspects that her brother was killed because he had slapped one of the stalkers.
Shahbagh police arrested Sayeed, and alleged stalker Nurul Huq, 19, who had been slapped by Babla. Nurul is a student of Ideal College.
Gang leader Hridoy, 22, is now on the run along with all his family members, after allegedly kidnapping a teenaged daughter of a ruling party lawmaker on February 19. Tumpa’s family and the lawmaker’s family live in the same apartment building in Segunbagicha.
“As my son had slapped Nurul, his gang led by Hridoy, beat up my son and later killed him after abduction, and now they abducted and killed my daughter too,” said Khairunnahar Shikha.
Tumpa’s family had to escort her to and from school for the last three years for the gang’s persistent stalking, Shikha said.
She said after Babla had been missing for five days, he told his wife over the phone that he was going to die, and in an eerie resemblance, on the night of Tumpa’s abduction she also said the same thing to Shikha over the phone, and right after that the connection was cut-off. Shikha got Tumpa on the phone very late that night after repeated attempts.
Postmortem reports found extensive marks of injuries on both bodies, while Tumpa’s postmortem also confirmed rape.
Shikha said although they had suspected that her daughter’s stalkers had killed her son eight months ago, they did not mention the stalkers’ names in the case filed back then, considering Tumpa’s security.
“But now I have nothing more to lose, as I lost both my son and daughter. I fear nothing now,” said the victims’ father Amanatullah Chowdhury.
SI Moktar Hossain said, “We suspect that the killings are linked, and gang leader Hridoy, his associates Nurul, Sohag and Jasim are among the suspects.”
“During preliminary interrogation, Nurul disclosed some names including Rhidoy’s,” he said adding, “Both arrestees were produced before a court, seeking their remand.”
Babla’s father filed a case with Raipura Police Station accusing four of Babla’s in-laws in connection with his death.
Raipura Police Station Officer-in-charge Abdul Baten told The Daily Star that they could not unfold the mystery behind Babla’s killing as his father “informally” withdrew the charges against Babla’s in-laws.
“But, officer-in-charge of my police station Mominul Huq has been sent to Dhaka to interrogate detained Nurul about Babla’s killing,” he said.
Nurul’s mother Nur Jahan Begum said although police arrested her son, she is not clear about the facts.
“I asked my son to disclose everything he knows,” said Nur Jahan.
