Two arrested killers have given a harrowing account of strangling retired Rangpur Zilla School teacher Ganapati Chakraborty and three members of his family to death, according to police. In their confessional statements, they said they killed the family one by one after Ganapati caught them using yaba (methamphetamine tablets) on the rooftop of his home. To make the killings look like a robbery, drug-addicted suspects Siddhartha Das and Mugdho Das stole gold jewelry and cash from the house before fleeing.
At a briefing Thursday on the overall status of the case and the progress of the investigation, Rangpur Metropolitan Police (RMP) Commissioner Abdul Mabud said the arrested suspects, Mugdho and Siddhartha, told the court in their confessional statements that of the four victims, Ganapati Chakraborty, his wife and his daughter were killed on the rooftop of the house. Ganapati’s body was then covered with corrugated tin sheeting, while his wife’s and daughter’s bodies were placed behind the rooftop staircase gate, out of view from neighboring rooftops.
The commissioner said Siddhartha told the court that after midnight on August 20, he went with co-accused Mugdho to the home of their friend Simanto, carrying yaba. The three of them used three yaba tablets there. Around 3 a.m., wanting more, they called a yaba dealer named Shanto and got four more tablets. They then went to the rooftop of Ganapati’s house.
The teacher’s rooftop had half-height walls on all sides, making it invisible from outside. Sitting behind a water tank on the roof, the two continued using yaba until dawn broke; that night the pair had used eight tablets between them. In the morning, Ganapati came up to the roof for a walk and discovered them, scolding them: “What are you doing here so early?”
According to the confession relayed by the commissioner, fearing for their reputations, the two grabbed the teacher before he could raise an alarm, and a struggle followed. They strangled him to death with a gamchha (a traditional cotton towel) that had been around his neck. As they were covering the body with tin sheeting and attempting to flee, his wife and daughter apparently heard a noise and came up to the roof; when the two women screamed, the suspects strangled them as well, a struggle that the commissioner said lasted several minutes before both were dead.
Fearing the house might have CCTV cameras, Siddhartha went downstairs and cut the electrical wiring with an old pair of pliers, to disconnect any camera system, while Mugdho remained on the roof. Siddhartha then returned to the roof, and the two placed the mother’s and daughter’s bodies inside the rooftop staircase gate so they would not be visible from a neighboring rooftop.
They then entered the teacher’s room on the second floor. There, 12-year-old Ayush Chakraborty woke up, saw Siddhartha, and said, “Siddhartha da, why are you here?” The two then strangled him as well.
Afterward, exhausted, the suspects washed themselves in the bathroom and used another yaba tablet they had with them. To stage the scene as a robbery, on Mugdho’s suggestion, they ransacked the almirah, drawers, clothing and books in the room. Mugdho brought out jewelry, which Siddhartha packed into a plastic box and a cloth bag. They also took 15,000 taka in cash found in the house.
When street traffic thinned during Friday prayers, they left by crossing from Ganapati’s rooftop over the wall to a neighboring building’s roof. Mugdho took the 15,000 taka, while Siddhartha took the bag of jewelry and went home through back alleys. That evening, unnoticed by anyone, Siddhartha buried the bag of jewelry in the ground behind the home of a relative he called “Purnima kakima” (aunt).
The commissioner said co-accused Mugdho’s confession was largely consistent with Siddhartha’s account. Mugdho was arrested at a crematorium about three kilometers away, where he had fled and asked caretaker Bidyut Das for water and shelter, confessing to him: “Brother, give me water and shelter. Siddhartha and I have killed teacher Ganapati and three others.” Bidyut did not give him shelter, and police arrived shortly after and arrested Mugdho. Bidyut has testified in court under Section 164.
The police commissioner said the postmortem report confirmed all four victims died of strangulation. He added that drug tests and DNA sample analysis for the two arrested suspects are under way, with court permission obtained for sample collection. Vaginal swabs were collected from the bodies of the deceased mother and daughter; no evidence of rape was found in the examination. He said that in cases of strangulation or hanging, semen and other bodily fluids can be expelled from the body itself rather than indicating external contamination, and that some physical changes such as slight protrusion of the eyes can also occur.
Last Wednesday night, Siddhartha’s brother, Partha Das, alleged that police had tried to wash away evidence at the house with water to destroy it. Responding to that claim, RMP Detective Branch (DB) Deputy Commissioner (DC) Sanatan Chakraborty said important evidence at the house had already been collected beforehand, and that no evidence had been washed away with water. He said police remain posted at the site for security, and characterized the allegation as an attempt to divert the case.