A man has confessed before a Khulna court to killing his 16-year-old daughter, with police saying the incident followed a family dispute over the teenager’s marriage.
The accused, Akash, gave a confessional statement before Khulna Metropolitan Magistrate-1 Md Asaduzzaman on Sunday. After recording his statement, the court ordered that he be sent to jail.
Akash was arrested on Saturday afternoon from a market in Dumuria upazila, days after the victim’s mother, Arifa Yasmin Sima, also confessed to her role in the killing before a court.
According to police, the victim, Nirjana, left her home in the Basupara Bashtala area of Khulna city on the morning of 8 July, intending to go with her husband, Rony. Family members intercepted her on the way and brought her back home.
Investigators said an argument later broke out between Nirjana and her mother. During the altercation, Nirjana allegedly assaulted her mother and grabbed her by the throat.
Khulna Police Station Sub-Inspector Aminul Islam, the investigating officer, said Akash intervened and struck his daughter on the head with a piece of wood in an attempt to discipline her. Although the parents claimed they tried to save her afterwards, she died from the injuries, said police.
Police alleged that Akash then attempted to conceal the crime by wrapping the body in a plastic sack tied with a black lungi before carrying it on a motorcycle.
Investigators said he rode around several locations before abandoning the body on a deserted road in the Prantika residential area on the outskirts of Khulna.
Police said the couple later returned home, cleaned bloodstains from the house and fled the following morning.
Khulna Sadar Police Station Officer-in-Charge Md Shafiqul Islam said investigators initially could not identify the body after it was recovered in a sack. The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) also failed to establish the victim’s identity at first.
The body was identified the following day after photographs were circulated on social media, the officer said.
The OC said police repeatedly tried to contact the girl’s parents during the investigation but were unsuccessful. Sima was later brought to the police station, where she initially refused to speak about the incident before eventually describing the events in detail.
Police recovered the motorcycle allegedly used to transport the body six days after the incident. Akash was arrested four days later from a tea stall in Dumuria upazila, bringing the investigation to a major breakthrough.
