A seventh-grade student whose body was recovered from a paddy field in Cumilla’s Lalmai upazila was raped and then strangled to death, police said on Saturday.
Speaking at a press briefing, Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime) Pankaj Barua said the 15-year-old girl boarded a CNG-run auto-rickshaw in front of Hotel Nurjahan at Paduar Bazar on Wednesday to return home to the Racecourse area.
Instead of taking her home, the auto-rickshaw driver, identified as Sumon, allegedly drove her to Jagatpur in the upazila.
Police said that at around 2:58am, while still inside the moving vehicle, the girl sent her live location to her father’s WhatsApp number and pleaded with him to come and rescue her. However, her father was asleep at the time and did not see the message.
The driver later fled the scene, leaving his auto-rickshaw behind.
Following an investigation, law enforcers arrested Sumon in Chattogram on Friday. Police also recovered Tazmin’s iPhone from his possession.
Jannatul Tazmin, daughter of Abdul Alim of Churamankati in Jashore Sadar and a student of Farida Vidyayatan in Cumilla city, was found dead on Thursday morning in a paddy field in Jagatpur.
Locals first spotted an abandoned auto-rickshaw and later discovered the girl’s body about 50 yards from the road near a field ridge. A cloth (gamcha) was found wrapped around her neck.
Abdul Alim said his daughter had left their rented home in Cumilla on 4 October, telling family members she was going to a friend’s house. She later travelled to Cox’s Bazar with the friend.
He said he last spoke with her around 2am on Thursday after she had returned to Cumilla. When he was unable to contact her afterwards, he tracked her mobile phone’s location to Lalmai and later learned that her body had been recovered from Jagatpur.
Abdul Alim filed a murder case with Lalmai Police Station against unidentified persons.
Police said the investigation into the case is continuing.
