Cumilla: Detective police have arrested a CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver suspected of involvement in the murder of a 14-year-old schoolgirl whose body was recovered from a paddy field in Cumilla’s Lalmai upazila on Thursday.
The accused, Suman, a resident of Kachua upazila in Chandpur, was arrested in Chattogram on Friday afternoon, October 9, said Md Lutfur Rahman, additional superintendent of police (administration) in Cumilla.
Police said Suman went into hiding after the incident. Investigators faced difficulties tracing him as he had no mobile phone or other digital device and did not possess a national identity card containing his fingerprints.
He was eventually tracked down in Chattogram using intelligence gathered by police. He is being brought to Cumilla for questioning to determine his possible involvement in the killing.
The body of Jannatul Tazmin, a seventh-grader at Farida Bidyayatan School in Cumilla city, was found in a paddy field in Jagatpur village on Thursday morning. She was the daughter of Abdul Alim, who works for pharmaceutical company Renata in its Cumilla region.
Tazmin left home on October 4, telling her family she was going to visit a female friend. According to information provided in the case, she was last seen in front of Hotel Nurjahan in Cumilla at 12:19am on October 8.
At 2:58am that day, she sent a WhatsApp message to her father, sharing her live location and asking him to come and take her home. However, he was asleep and did not see the message at the time.
Her body was recovered the following morning, initially as that of an unidentified victim. Police later established her identity and seized a CNG-run auto-rickshaw found near the body.
Following the discovery, her father filed a murder case with Lalmai Police Station against unidentified people.
School authorities said Tazmin had not attended classes since February this year. The family lives in a rented apartment in Cumilla city’s Racecourse area.
Police said further questioning of the arrested driver and investigation into the case would help establish the circumstances surrounding the girl’s death.
