Couple confesses to killing woman in Dhaka

A couple has confessed to killing a woman in Dhaka’s Jatrabari area for allegedly blackmailing them, police said today.

Police broke into an apartment locked form outside and recovered the decomposed body of Jharna Begum,31, a sex worker, on June 25 after they were informed by residents of the building about a foul odour.

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Later, family members of the victim in Chandpur were informed of Jharna's demise and her body was handed over to them after autopsy.

But police found themselves struggling to find clues attached to the murder that would give away the identities of the perpetrators.

Police detained and interrogated Jharna’s second husband and his first wife as part of investigation, but concluded that they were not involved in the murder.

The law enforcers put to work as much effort as they could to uncover the mystery behind the murder and finally detained the murder suspects yesterday, Kazi Wazed Ali, officer-in-charge of Jatrabari Police Station, told The Daily Star.  

A neighbour couple, Selim and his wife, went to Jharna’s flat on June 22 with the pretense of watching a World Cup football match together and killed her by suffocating her with a pillow after mixing sleeping drugs into her drink, Selim said in his confession.

Selim gave a confessional statement before a Dhaka court today, the OC said, adding that Selim’s wife had previous acquaintances with Jharna.

In his statement, Selim claimed Jharna was blackmailing them very sensitive information that she knew about the couple and demanding some “special privileges” from them.

Jharna threatened to make the information public if they did not let her use their flat for her work, Selim said in the statement, adding that they had no way other than killing Jharna.

Selim’s wife will give her confession tomorrow.