The latest action is expected to clarify the discrepancy

TDS Desk:

The Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police has arrested two people in connection with the death of Bogura’s headteacher Ranjila Parvin, who fell from a battery-run rickshaw after snatchers allegedly pulled at her bag in front of the National Parliament building.

The DB claims the two arrested men are the “actual snatchers” involved in the incident. They also recovered the motorcycle allegedly used in the snatching, along with the victim’s bag and mobile phone.

DMP DB chief Md Shafiqul Islam made the claim at a press conference at the DMP Media Centre on Wednesday afternoon.

The arrested men are Md Khokon, 35, and Md Rajib Matubbar, 36.

Shafiqul said the two men seen in CCTV footage of the incident were arrested wearing the same clothes they were seen wearing in the footage.

He said the DB’s Tejgaon division began a covert investigation immediately after the incident in coordination with the local police station. After reviewing CCTV footage, gathering information and conducting technical analysis, investigators identified those allegedly involved.

Subsequent raids in different parts of Dhaka, Savar and Mirpur led to the arrests of Khokon and Rajib, who the DB chief said were directly involved in the snatching. At the time of his arrest, 622 yaba tablets were recovered from Rajib’s possession, he added.

Based on information provided by the accused, the victim’s bag was recovered from Borobagh in Mirpur and her mobile phone from the Co-operative Market in Mirpur-1.

The motorcycle allegedly used in the incident was seized from Dewan Para in Bhashantek based on information provided by Rajib, Shafiqul said.

He claimed that the two suspects admitted during initial interrogation to their involvement in the snatching and Ranjila’s death.

Earlier RAB arrests

Earlier, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) had arrested three people in connection with the incident and said it had recovered a motorcycle used in the snatching.

Questions were later raised over whether the motorcycle recovered by RAB was the one seen in CCTV footage and whether those arrested were directly involved in the incident.

The incident

Ranjila Parvin, 56, headteacher of Bagbari Girls’ Government Primary School in Gabtali, Bogura, died on the morning of August 29 after falling onto the road when snatchers allegedly pulled at her bag near the South Plaza of the Parliament building.

She had come to Dhaka with her husband, Abdul Matin, for medical treatment. After getting off at Kalyanpur bus terminal early that morning, she was travelling to a hospital on a battery-run rickshaw when two people on a motorcycle allegedly grabbed the bag she was carrying.

She fell from the rickshaw and suffered a severe head injury. She was taken to a hospital, where doctors declared her dead.

Her husband later filed a murder case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station.