Murder of 8-yr-Old: Madrasa head, 2 others held
A Dhaka court yesterday placed the principal of a madrasa and one of his cohorts on a five-day remand each, while another was sent to Juvenile Correction Centre kidnapping and murdering an eight-year-old student in Demra for ransom.
Mohammed Farid Uddin, deputy commissioner (Wari Division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, at a press briefing at the DMP media centre, said the three were arrested on Tuesday and produced before the court yesterday.
Monir Hossain, a class one student of Nur-e Madina Madrasa, went missing on Sunday. The next day, police recovered his body, stuffed in a sack, on the stairs of the under-construction Nur-e Aysha mosque in Dogair Natun Para area.
The victim's father Saidul Hoque, a small trader, then filed a murder case with Demra Police Station.
On Tuesday, police arrested the madrasa's principal Abdul Jalil Hadi, 42, also the imam of the mosque where the victim's body was found, and a 15-year-old student of the madrasa.
Based on information given by them, police arrested Md Akram, 22, a teaching associate at the madrasa, from Bangshal area.
Police recovered a towel, two sacks, two ropes, a mobile phone and the victim's clothes from their possessions.
They confessed to the kidnapping and murder of the child during primary interrogation, the DC said.
Police said Monir's sister took him to the madrasa on Sunday morning. When she went to pick him later in the day, his teachers said he had already gone home.
Since there was no trace of him for hours, the family began searching the locality by making announcements on microphones. After a while, an anonymous caller demanded Tk 3 lakh over phone.
Saidul managed Tk 1 lakh and went to Nur-e-Ayesha mosque, where the caller had asked him to meet. Despite waiting all of Sunday night, nobody came.
The DC said the arrestees had taken Monir to the under-construction mosque after kidnapping him.
“The kidnappers wrapped Monir's face in a towel when he started crying. When they realised that he was dead, they put the body in a sack and left him beside the staircase,” said the DC, adding that they demanded the ransom even after they knew the child was already dead.
Police suspect Monir died from suffocation.
Monir's father said he was too poor to arrange the ransom and it's unacceptable that someone killed his son for money.