A mobile phone, looted in the wake of a murder, passed sequentially through the hands of eight different individuals. It was sold repeatedly—sometimes for Tk 500, sometimes for Tk 700. Having found no initial leads in the case, investigators tracked down the missing handset nearly a year later, inadvertently leading them straight to the architects of the crime.

This breakthrough finally unravelled the mystery behind the high-profile double murder of a mother and son in Bagmara, Rajshahi.

On the night of 23 November 2014, Aklima Bewa, 55, and her son Jahid Hasan, 28, were hacked to death with sharp weapons at their residence in Deula village under Bagmara Upazila. The following day, Aklima’s other son, Dulal Uddin, filed a murder case at Bagmara police station.

Initially, the case was investigated by the local Bagmara police. Although they arrested five individuals during the preliminary probe, it was subsequently revealed that none of them were involved in the killings.