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“I suddenly heard my daughter screaming and rushed outside searching for her. Near Sohel’s flat, I found one of her sandals. I kept banging on the door again and again, but nobody opened it. They killed my daughter so brutally.”
Hearing the Parveen’s screams, other residents of the building rushed to the flat and repeatedly knocked on the door, but no one responded.
After breaking down the door, Parveen and the others found Swapna, 26, standing in the common area of the flat and then discovered the girl’s body hidden under the bed in Sohel and Swapna’s room. The child’s severed head was found inside a bucket in the toilet, said the victim’s uncle, AKM Nazrul Islam.
He added that Sohel cut through the flat’s window grille to escape. “His wife was not opening the door when we knocked, to help him escape.”
The body was sent to Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital for autopsy.
Hasan Basir, officer-in-charge of Pallabi Police Station, said Swapna was also taken into custody on suspicion of being an accomplice. He added that police believe the child was raped before being murdered. “However, that can only be determined after autopsy.”
Members of the Criminal Investigation Department and other agencies visited the scene and collected the knife used and other evidences.
Md Faruk Mia, manager of a garage on the ground floor of the building, said Sohel occasionally worked for him repairing rickshaws and was addicted to yaba.
Visiting the scene, this correspondent found the alley in front of the house filled with stunned and grief-stricken neighbours.
The victim’s sister, Raisa Akter, 10, said she and Ramisa had breakfast together minutes before the murder.
“I went to my uncle’s house nearby when Ramisa was still eating breakfast. She was supposed to get ready for school after that.”
Ride-sharing driver Masud Parvez Roni said he rented a room in the flat to Sohel for Tk 5,000 two months ago, while his brother and sister-in-law lived in another room.
“My wife went to our village home two months ago, and I was outside working as a ride-sharing driver. At the time of the murder, my brother and his wife had also gone out for work.”
Saiful Islam, headmaster of Popular Model High School, said Ramisa was a very meritorious student and never missed classes. She ranked first in her class for the last two consecutive years.
“We came to know about the tragic killing just minutes before her class started and visited the scene.”
He added that teachers and students of the school were expected to form a human chain in front of the victim’s house this morning, demanding exemplary punishment for those responsible.
At a press briefing at the Pallabi Police Station around 10:15pm, SM Nazrul Islam, additional commissioner for crime and operations of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said police went to the scene immediately after receiving information about the killing, recovered the body and sent it to hospital.
“We suspect that something may have happened to the child in the bathroom [of Sohel’s room]...
“Sohel tried to dismember the body to conceal the crime but could not complete it as the child’s mother and neighbours began knocking on the door.”
He added that Swapna, during primary interrogation, claimed she had taken sleeping pills and was unconscious when the incident occurred.
“This claim will be verified upon investigation.”
Nazrul said police, during a database check, found that Sohel was earlier accused in a case under the Anti-Terrorism Act in Natore.
Meanwhile, Emdadul Haque, inspector (investigation) of Pallabi Police Station, told The Daily Star that filing of a case was under process. No case had been registered till the filing of this report at around 1:40am.