Content warning: This article contains graphic depictions of violence. Reader discretion is advised.
A man named Sohel Rana has confessed before a court to the rape and murder of a minor girl in the Pallabi area of Mirpur. His wife, Swapna Akhtar, has also been sent to prison in connection with the same incident.
On Wednesday, the police produced the suspects in court. Sub-Inspector Ohiduzzaman of Pallabi Police Station, the investigating officer of the case, applied to have Sohel Rana’s voluntary confessional statement recorded.
Consequently, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Aminul Islam Junaid recorded the statement and ordered the accused to be sent to jail.
In a separate application, the police sought to keep Sohel’s wife, Swapna Akhtar, in custody. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Ashraful Huq subsequently ordered her to be sent to prison. These details were confirmed by Sub-Inspector Abul Kalam Azad of the Prosecution Department.
According to case documents, the victim, Ramisa Akhtar, 8, was a second-grade student at Popular Model High School.
On 19 May, at approximately 9:30am, Ramisa left her home, at which point Swapna Akhtar reportedly lured her into their flat. Around 10:30am, while searching for Ramisa to send her to school, her parents discovered her shoes outside the suspects’ room.
After receiving no response to their calls, Ramisa’s parents and other neighbours broke into the flat. They discovered the child’s decapitated body on the bedroom floor, while her head was found inside a large bucket.
Swapna Akhtar, who was present at the scene, told them that her husband, Sohel Rana, 30, had forcibly trapped the child in the bathroom and murdered her after committing rape.
The sources detail a gruesome crime: the victim’s head was severed with a sharp knife to hide the body, her genitals were mutilated, and her arms were partially severed from the shoulders.
The body had been moved from the bathroom to under a bed in the bedroom, with the head placed in a bucket.
Sohel Rana initially escaped the scene by cutting through a window grill. He was later apprehended in front of Fatullah Police Station in Narayanganj district. During interrogation, he admitted his involvement in the crime.
