Two young men have been arrested in connection with the killing of four members of a family in Rangpur, allegedly after the victims objected to the suspects taking yaba on the rooftop of their home.
The deceased were identified as Ganapati Chakraborty, 65, a former accounting teacher at Rangpur Zilla School; his wife, Pritilata Chakraborty, 50; their daughter, Agami Chakraborty Prarthi, 25; and their 12-year-old son, Ayush Chakraborty Priyam.
The arrested suspects are Mugdha Das, 23, son of Kanudas, and Siddhartha Das, 19, son of Binay Chandra Das. Police said the two are related as maternal uncle and nephew.
Rangpur Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mohammad Abdul Mabud disclosed the arrests at a press briefing around noon on Sunday. Three people had initially been detained for questioning in connection with the incident.
Police recovered the bodies from different rooms, the attic and the rooftop of the family’s two-storey house in the Machuapara Mandir area around 11:30pm on Saturday after relatives informed them.
Investigators believe the four were killed on Thursday night.
According to police, Mugdha and Siddhartha entered Ganapati’s rooftop through the roof of a neighbouring house on Thursday night and began taking yaba.
Hearing noises, Ganapati went upstairs and asked them who they were. The suspects allegedly strangled him with the towel around his neck while they were under the influence of drugs, said the police commissioner.
Hearing her husband’s screams, Pritilata came to the rooftop and the suspects allegedly strangled her in the same manner, police said.
Their daughter Prarthi later came towards the rooftop from the attic and was allegedly strangled with a rope and towel.
The suspects then entered the house and allegedly killed 12-year-old Priyam while he was asleep by wrapping a cloth around his face and suffocating him with a pillow, according to police.
During preliminary interrogation, the suspects reportedly told police that they remained inside the house after killing the family.
They allegedly took showers, ate dates kept on the dining table and continued taking yaba before leaving the house, police said.
The following day, Friday, they allegedly took advantage of the streets being relatively deserted during Jumma prayers and fled with the family’s gold jewellery.
Police said the suspects vandalised furniture and other belongings to make the incident appear to be a robbery.
Police later recovered the stolen jewellery from an abandoned area behind a nearby temple.
Puja Rani, sister-in-law of Ganapati Chakraborty, said she first called her sister Pritilata around 9:45pm on Saturday but found her phone switched off.
She then called her niece, brother-in-law and young nephew, but all their phones were switched off, raising her suspicion.
Puja and her husband subsequently went to the house. When they received no response from inside, they entered the premises with the help of local residents by climbing over the boundary wall.
They opened a window from outside and found the house in disarray. A strong foul smell was also coming from inside. After the bodies were discovered, locals informed the police.
Police from Kotwali Police Station rushed to the scene following the report. Members of the Criminal Investigation Department’s crime scene unit and other police branches later joined the investigation.
Household belongings were found scattered across the rooms, while cupboards and other places where money and jewellery were kept had been damaged. The house’s electricity connection had also been cut.
These circumstances initially led police to suspect that the family had been killed during a robbery.
However, following their investigation and interrogation of the two suspects, police said the killings were linked to the victims’ objection to the suspects taking yaba on the rooftop.
The investigation is ongoing.
