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Meanwhile, police may seek to exhume the body of an accused in the case -- Arafat, 28 -- who died at City Hospital in Mohammadpur on Saturday, two days after drinking with the same group at a restaurant in Uttara on Thursday.

On that day, another of the group fell sick at the restaurant and left the place immediately. Police said one member of the group had taken alcohol to the restaurant from the airport area. Police are searching for both of them.

According to the case statement, five, including the victim, went to a restaurant in sector-3 of Uttara on Thursday. There, they made her drink alcohol. As she fell sick, they took the girl to one of her friend’s house in Mohammadpur. There the prime accused -- Mortuza Raihan Chowdhury, one of the two arrestees -- raped her.

The following day, the victim stayed at the friend’s house and when the victim’s physical condition deteriorated and she started vomiting, the students took her to the hospital, according to the statement.

The two arrestees -- Raihan, 21, and Nuhat Alam Tafsir, 21, -- were each taken into a five-day remand on Sunday. The arrestees went to the same private university as the victim.

Mohammadpur Police Station Officer-in-Charge Abdul Latif said the youth who died at City Hospital was buried on the same day without the police being informed. He said they got the necessary information from the hospital.

The OC said the other two arrestees did not know that their male friend died on Saturday. Police contacted his family and may seek to conduct an autopsy after exhuming his body.

Police checked the CCTV footage of the restaurant in Uttara and Nuhat’s house in Mohammadpur. They also scrutinised the mobile phones of the arrestees.

On the basis of preliminary interrogation of the two arrestees, Harun-Ur-Rashid, deputy commissioner of Tejgaon Division, said initially it seemed that it may have been a case of excessive drinking or something poisonous was present in the liquor. There might also be the possibility of rape under the influence of alcohol.

The actual reason can only be determined after the autopsy report is prepared, he said.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, the Tejgaon DC said they are investigating whether the incident of liquor poisoning has any links or similarities to the incident in a Gazipur resort last Friday, where three staffers of a private organisation died due to suspected liquor poisoning.