Bogura Correspondent

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) today (16 November) stood by its previous statement over the involvement of the son in the gruesome killing of Umme Salma in Bogura, saying the information was shared based on the confession he made following his detention.

“He [the son named Saad Bin Azizur Rahman] confessed to his involvement in the brutal murder in the presence of his relatives, including his father,” said Colonel Md Munim Ferdous, director of RAB’s Legal and Media Wing, during a briefing at the force’s Media Centre in the capital’s Karwan Bazar.

“The police and RAB investigations may pan out differently and take different turns. However, if any negligence from any RAB official is found during the investigation, they will be held accountable,” he added.

On November 15, in a twist, police said 50-year-old Salma was murdered, in her house in the Joypirpara area in Bogura’s Dupachachia upazila around noon on 10 November, by one of her tenants, contradicting the earlier statement by RAB that accused her son of the murder.

Police said Mabia Begum, a tenant at Salma’s house, killed her with the help of two of her cohorts.

The police statement threw doubt over the RAB statement issued on 12 November that said Salma’s son Saad had killed her and confessed to the killing after he was taken into custody.

The three new suspects, who were arrested on Thursday night (14 November) gave confessional statements to the Dupachaia Cognisance Court about killing Salma, Faridpur Police spokesperson Additional Superintendent Suman Ranjan Sarker told this correspondent.

The other two arrestees are Moslem Uddin, 26, and Rabi Das, 28.

According to police, Mabia was involved in “immoral and drug-related activities” in the house. When Salma and her husband Azizur Rahman realised the matter, it led to a dispute between them. They asked Mabia to leave the house as she was also not paying rent for two months.

“Mabia was angry at Salma. She and her cohorts – drug dealer Suman and Moslem – planned to kill her. First, Mabia entered the house alone, then called the other two over the phone. The two men used an anaesthetic spray to make Salma unconscious.

“They then tied her up, put her inside the freezer and left the house,” one police official said, on condition of anonymity, citing the confessional statements.

Police sources said weapons and other materials used in the murders have also been recovered as per the information given by the new arrestees in their confessional statement.