A stepfather today confessed before a Narsingdi court to killing his teenage daughter, Amena Khatun, whose body was found in a mustard field in Narsingdi’s Sadar upazila on February 26, police said.
Md Ashraf Ali, 45, gave his statement under Section 164 before Narsingdi Senior Judicial Magistrate Md Mehdi Hasan, said Abdullah Al Faruq, superintendent of police in Narsingdi.
According to his statement, on the night of February 25, Ashraf took Amena out of their home, saying they were going to visit his colleague Suman. On the way, he strangled her with a scarf. The next morning, her body was recovered from a field.
He claimed he was frustrated over what he described as his daughter’s “socially inappropriate activities”, which led to the murder.
The victim’s mother filed a case with Madhabdi Police Station the same day, naming nine suspects.
The case statement alleged that Amena had been gang-raped by four men on February 10. Some of the accused reportedly tried to cover up the incident, threatened the family, and pressured Amena to leave the village. An arbitration meeting was scheduled for March 1 regarding the matter.
On the night of February 25, Amena and her father, Ashraf Ali, were reportedly intercepted in the Boroitola area of Kotowalir Char. From there, the prime accused Nur Mohammad alias Nura and his associates allegedly took the girl away by force.
Around 9:30am on February 26, locals found Amena’s body lying in a mustard field in Darikandi, Kotowalir Char, and informed police.
Police later arrested eight of the nine named suspects at different times.
Former Union Parishad member and Mahishasura Union BNP vice-president Ahmed Ali Dewan has been expelled from the party over alleged involvement in the case.
According to the First Information Report, the accused initially tried to suppress the incident and later allegedly threatened the victim’s family, demanding she leave the village.
The prime accused, Nura, was arrested from Gazipur on the night of February 27, said Additional Superintendent of Police Anwar Hossain Shamim. He added that Nura was attempting to flee to India via the Dinajpur border.
The other arrested men are Ebadullah, 38, Hazrat Ali, 40, Gaffar, 37, Ahmed Ali alias Ahmed Dewan, 65, Md Imran Dewan, 32, and Md Ayub, 30, all residents of Mahishasura Union.
On March 6, Ashraf was brought to Madhabdi Police Station for interrogation but his account was in conflict with other evidence in the case.
During interrogation, he eventually admitted to killing his stepdaughter and later repeated the confession in court.
Following his statement, the magistrate ordered Ashraf to jail.
