Bogura Correspondent:

The mystery behind the murder of cashier Iqbal Hasan, 28, at Shatabdi Filling Station in Bogura town has been unraveled, as a salesman confessed to killing him with a hammer following a dispute over fuel theft allegations, said policer on Monday.

Detective Branch (DB) police arrested Rakibul Islam Roton, 25, from the Mouchak bus stand area of Kaliakoir upazila in Gazipur on Sunday night, a day after the killing. Police said he admitted to the crime during initial interrogation.

Additional Superintendent of Police Abu Raihan disclosed details at a DB press briefing on Monday.

According to investigators, Iqbal had accused Roton of fuel theft and later slapped him after he complained to the pump owner. Enraged, Roton planned revenge and attacked Iqbal while he was asleep in the office room around 2:35am on Saturday.

CCTV footage shows Roton striking Iqbal at least 13 times on the head with a hammer in just 15 seconds, before stabbing him with a knife and syringe. He then fled with Iqbal’s mobile phone and Tk36,500 in cash. Police later recovered the phone, cash, and the bloodstained knife and syringe, though the hammer remains missing.

The victim’s sister, Sadia Khatun, filed a case at Sadar Police Station.

Iqbal, originally from Sirajganj Sadar, had worked at the filling station for four years and lived inBoguratown with his pregnant wife. His body was sent to Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.

Police said Roton will be produced before court, where they may seek remand if he does not give a confessional statement under section 164.