A 15-year-old boy named Bappi was beaten to death on suspicion of theft in the Mirhajirbagh area of Jatrabari in the capital.
The killing took place on Wednesday at a house in the Abu Haji Mosque Lane of Mirhajirbagh. Police have arrested one person, Fouzia Rowshan Akhtar Preeti, in connection with the incident.
Bappi’s home is in Kadamtala village of Sharankhola upazila in Bagerhat. His father Shahjahan works as a rickshaw-puller and his mother Parul Begum is employed at a garment factory. They live in Majibur Munshi’s house on Prem Goli in Dhalpur, Dhaka.
Bappi’s elder brother Parvez said their mother and Bappi worked at a local factory. Around 2am on Tuesday, three young men from the area took Bappi away, accusing him of stealing money and a prepaid card from a house through a window.
The three youths are identified as Kapshi Rasel, Molla Shuvo, and Moyna Shakib. Bappi was then confined in a club room on the ground floor of a house on Abu Haji Mosque Lane and beaten.
On Wednesday morning, he was brought back to his home and ordered to return the stolen items. When nothing was found, they took him away again. Parvez said their mother followed them, but she too was beaten with a pipe.
Parvez added that Bappi was held at the house throughout Wednesday and tortured. Around 5:30pm, the accused abandoned him in an unconscious state by the roadside near the first gate of Bara Bari in Mirhajirbagh. Family members rushed to rescue him, but he died on the way to the hospital.
On Thursday morning, police recovered the body and sent it to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue.
Jatrabari Police Station Sub-Inspector Asaduzzaman Jewel said, “The boy was called in on suspicion of theft and subjected to brutal torture for a long time. Initially, it appears to be a murder.
The victim’s mother has filed a murder case.” SI Jewel said one accused, Fouzia Rowshan Akhtar Preeti, has been arrested, and efforts are underway to arrest the others.
