Before her body was discovered in a crop field in Cumilla, a 15-year-old girl Jannatul Tazmin had travelled to the beach town of Cox’s Bazar.
Spending a single night in the tourist city before setting off on her journey back home, she suffered a horrific rape and murder, raising unsettling questions about why she visited Cox’s Bazar and why she arrived in Cumilla late at night.
On Thursday morning, police recovered Tazmin’s body from land adjacent to the Manumura jungle under Lalmai Upazila.
Trail of a ticket and online connection
Discovered beside her body was a bus ticket for “Iconic Enterprise.” Following the trail of that ticket led investigators to a counter at Kolatoli in Cox’s Bazar.
Ashab Abdullah, counter director, revealed that a 20-year-old youth he knew arrived with the teenager on Tuesday night to buy the ticket, introducing her as his female friend.
Mohammad Abdullah, counter representative of Cox’s Panoramic Travel and Tour, stated that after 8pm on Tuesday, Tazmin and the youth visited the counter and collected tickets for “Iconic Express” for the following day, and she was boarded onto the bus at around 12:30pm on Wednesday.
An investigation into Tazmin’s disappearance revealed that on 4 October, following an argument with her mother over gifting a wristwatch to a female friend, Tazmin angrily left home and went to a friend’s residence in Brahmanbaria.
Keya Khatun, mother of the victim, stated that during her last phone conversation with her daughter on Thursday, Tazmin gave no specific details, mentioning only that she was staying at a female friend’s home; although Keya Khatun wanted to bring her back, she could not as the location remained unclarified.
From Brahmanbaria, Tazmin contacted Riaz Uddin alias Raju via mobile phone, who sent her Tk500 through bKash, enabling her to travel to Cox’s Bazar. Raju, a 20-year-old youth who had been working at a residential hotel in Cox’s Bazar for three years, had developed an intimacy with Tazmin through exchanged messages and reels on Facebook and Instagram.
A colleague of Raju noted that their acquaintance on social media began 17 days earlier, though another source claimed it had lasted for nearly five months, while Raju himself claimed they had been in contact for two to three months after meeting on Facebook.
Fake identity at a beach resort
In Cox’s Bazar, Raju initially arranged for Tazmin to stay alone before moving her to a resort.
Register details and CCTV footage from a three-storey hotel located at the end of the road adjacent to Kutumbari in Kolatoli show that on 6 October at 7:25pm, Tazmin checked into Room 302 with Raju under the fake identity of “Tanju Akhtar,” introduced as his wife.
Raju identified himself as the son of Monir Ahmad from the Lama area of Bandarban, and their ages were recorded as 18 in the hotel register.
Md Absar, front desk manager of Meghla Resort, stated that while Raju’s National ID (NID) card was collected, no identification was taken for the teenage girl.
A hotel worker noted that two mobile phone numbers and an NID number for Raju were recorded in the register, including a family contact number, and the pair checked out around 11:00 am on 7 October.
Fatal journey and a driver’s confession
Raju claimed that frequent phone calls from her family members prompted him to advise Tazmin to return home. Lacking bus fare, he borrowed money to purchase a ticket worth Tk900 and gave her Tk500 before putting her on the bus.
According to sources, upon arriving in Cumilla, Tazmin informed Raju that the gate of her home was locked, later stating she had met a person at the railway station and decided to stay at his residence. This triggered an argument between them.
Raju’s colleague mentioned that Raju remained in phone contact with Tazmin as she boarded an auto-rickshaw in Cumilla, during which she mentioned the driver.
However, at around 1:30am, Tazmin’s live location on her mobile phone went offline, severing all communication. Raju claimed his repeated calls the following morning went unanswered until he learned of her death through a female friend.
Following the murder, Raju claimed complete innocence while weeping, took leave from his hotel to stay elsewhere, and turned off his mobile phone.
CCTV footage captured Tazmin disembarking from the bus in front of Hotel Noorjahan at Paduar Bazar Vishwa Road at around 11:45pm on Wednesday (7 October). Intending to reach her home in the Race-coarse area of the city, she hired a CNG-driven auto-rickshaw.
Md Suman Miah, CNG-driven auto-rickshaw driver, diverted her from her destination to a secluded location in Voral Jagatpur Uttarpara under Lalmai Upazila. There, Suman brutally raped Tazmin before strangling her to death with a towel (gamcha).
Her body was discovered the following morning (8 October) on the aisle of a paddy field. Police subsequently arrested Suman from Chittagong and recovered Tazmin’s iPhone from a location disclosed by him.
Mijanur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Lalmai Police Station, confirmed that driver Suman gave a confessional statement in court.
He added that further investigation is underway using call detail records and digital evidence from the recovered mobile phone, promising that full details will be released once the probe concludes.
