Detective police have detained two men, Mugdho and Siddhartha, over the killing of Ganapati Chakraborty, a former teacher at Rangpur Zilla School, his wife and their two children. They were detained from the city’s Machhuapara area in the early hours of Sunday. It has initially emerged that they are residents of the same area. Police also found evidence of yaba use at the house after the killings.
According to police, the motive for killing the family’s 12-year-old son has also been established. The boy was friends with Siddhartha’s younger brother, Apurbo, and the two used to play together. Because the boy knew the accused, the killers feared that if he were left alive, his recognition of them would expose their identities.
According to information provided by police, Siddhartha decided to kill the boy. Mugdho and Siddhartha then attacked him together. He was strangled with cloth around the neck, then further smothered with a pillow to ensure his death.
Even after the killings, Mugdho and Siddhartha remained in the house. They bathed in the house’s bathroom, ate dates and cucumbers kept on the dining table, and used yaba there again. They later slipped away over the roof of the neighboring building when the opportunity arose. Before that, they had rested for some time sitting in chairs inside the house.
Police said the killings began late Thursday night. Before that, Mugdho and Siddhartha had used yaba at the home of a man named Shimanto. Police say Shimanto was not involved in the killings. They then went to Ganapati Chakraborty’s rooftop via the roof of a neighboring under-construction building.
Mugdho works at a fish shop in City Bazar. Police said the two had bought yaba at 350 taka a piece from a drug dealer named Khushi, alias Proshanto.
The police commissioner said Ganapati Chakraborty was a respected man who had no dispute with anyone. Mugdho and Siddhartha had gone onto Ganapati Chakraborty’s rooftop via the neighboring building’s roof and were using yaba there. Hearing a noise, Ganapati Chakraborty went up and asked them about their gathering. Fearing their identities would be exposed, they strangled him with the gamcha around his neck and killed him.
The DIG said that hearing the sounds of Ganapati Chakraborty’s struggle and cries, his wife, Pritilata Chakraborty, tried to go up to the roof. She too was strangled with a gamcha on the stairs. Their daughter, Agami Chakraborty Parthi, 25, then came forward, and the assailants tried to strangle her with a gamcha as well. It took four to five minutes to kill her. At one point, the attackers wrapped a rope around her neck and mouth and pulled it tight, breaking her jaw and causing her eyes to bulge.
They then went to the ground floor, where the boy was strangled with cloth around the neck. A pillow was then used to smother him and ensure his death. Because the boy was the same age as his own child, the police commissioner grew emotional while describing the incident.
Police said the accused left the house with the gold jewelry after the killings. Various items in the house were ransacked to make the killings look like a robbery. The jewelry was later hidden in an abandoned house behind a temple. These items were recovered from the location the suspects pointed police to.
Nazmul, officer-in-charge of Rangpur Kotwali police station, said law enforcement launched an operation as soon as news of the four killings was received. Siddhartha and Mugdho were eventually detained. One of them, sensing police presence, fled and hid in the mulberry garden of the Sericulture Development Board. He was later detained from the nearby Dokhigonj cremation-ground area.
Earlier, police recovered the bodies of Ganapati Chakraborty and three other family members from their home in Machhuapara late Saturday night. The other victims were Ganapati Chakraborty’s wife, Pritilata Chakraborty, 50; their daughter, Agami Chakraborty Parthi, 24; and their 12-year-old son.
Sumit Chakraborty, in-charge of the Rangpur CID office, said the killings may have occurred two to three days earlier. The house’s electricity connection had been disconnected. Drawers of furniture and the places where jewelry was kept were also found broken open. Although robbery appeared to be the motive at first, an investigation is under way to determine the actual cause.
Sanatan Chakraborty, spokesperson for Rangpur Metropolitan Police and deputy commissioner (DB), said it is believed the victims were initially killed by strangulation. The way the house was ransacked also pointed to the theft of valuables. Multiple law enforcement agencies are working together to uncover the mystery behind the incident and bring those involved to justice.
Police said efforts are under way to complete the case investigation quickly and bring the actual culprits to justice.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report