Detectives from the Mirpur Division of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DB) have arrested a teenage boy accused of murdering his two aunts — Mariyam Begum (60) and Sufia Begum (55) — in the capital’s Shewrapara area.
The arrested 14-year-old boy is a nephew of the victims and the son of a sister of the two deceased women.
According to investigators, he went to his aunts’ home to steal money to buy a bicycle. When the theft was discovered and his aunts threatened to inform his parents, he brutally killed both women using a knife and a grinding stone. He then locked the house, took the key, and fled the scene.
At a press conference held on Monday afternoon at the DMP Media Center, DB Joint Commissioner Mohammad Nasirul Islam disclosed the details of the incident.
He said that on Friday, May 9, around noon, the accused left his home in Jatrabari’s Shanir Akhra, claiming he was going to private tuition, but instead headed straight to the Shewrapara residence of his eldest aunt, Mariyam Begum.
At the time, he was wearing a red cap and a mask. When asked whether his visit was known to the family, the boy replied that his mother was on her way and that he had reached earlier.
While Mariyam went to prepare a drink for him and the younger aunt, Sufia Begum, was cleaning dishes in the balcony, the nephew seized the moment to steal Tk3,000 from a wallet beside the TV in the bedroom. When Mariyam caught him in the act and began scolding him, she searched for her phone to inform his mother.
At that point, the boy stabbed her in the stomach with a lemon-cutting knife from the dining table. As Maryam tried to fight him off while bleeding, he stabbed her again.
Hearing her screams, Sufia rushed from another room to intervene. The boy then stabbed her in the stomach as well, causing her to fall to the floor. As Mariyam continued to scream, he grabbed a grinding stone from beside the kitchen stove and struck her on the head multiple times. He also struck Sufia again before going to the bathroom to wash off the blood from his hands and face.
He changed out of his bloodstained T-shirt and jeans, putting on a pair of jeans belonging to his cousin Misti and a T-shirt and cap from her bag. After locking the apartment from outside and taking the key, he left.
He took a CNG autorickshaw back to Shanir Akhra, discarding the house keys and red cap on the way. Upon arrival, he paid Tk450 as fare and discarded the remaining bloodstained money by the roadside. He then entered a mosque toilet in a nearby market, cleaned himself, and changed back into his pink panjabi, which he had worn earlier that morning. He threw the bloodstained clothes into the toilet’s ventilator. He also discarded his bloodstained shoes near the house.
On May 10, the day after the murder, he left for his grandmother’s house in Jhalokathi to attend Sufia Begum’s burial. Within 24 hours, using CCTV footage and digital forensics, police tracked him and arrested him from there.
Based on his confession, law enforcement recovered a bloodstained blue T-shirt and two pairs of blue jeans — his own and one belonging to cousin Misti — from atop a sewer line beside the Star Shopping Center. His discarded shoes were found on the rooftop of an abandoned building near his home.
In response to a question, the DB joint commissioner said the arrested teenager had been expelled from school.
Investigations are ongoing to determine whether his motive was solely to buy a bicycle or if there were other reasons.
Meanwhile, the teen has confessed to the double murder in a statement recorded in court.