Body recovered in bus storage

Police recovered the decomposed body of an unidentified girl, in her early twenties, wrapped inside a suitcase from a highway bus' luggage compartment in Nabinagar on Saturday night.

The body was recovered around 11pm in Nabinagar bus stand area from the bus plying from Dhaka to Gopalganj route via Paturia, said police.

Md Liton, bus counter owner at Nabinagar, told The Daily Star yesterday that on Friday around 2:30pm the bus left from Dhaka's Gabtoli for Gopalganj with 21 passengers. Another 19 passengers boarded the bus from his counter in Nabinagar.

After crossing the river by a ferry, supervisor of the bus noticed a passenger missing. Later, the bus went to Gopalganj.

After reaching their destination, rest of the passengers left the bus and a suitcase was found abandoned inside the bus luggage box.

The next day, the bus left Gopalganj for Dhaka with new passengers and the suitcase inside. After a bad smell came from the compartment on Saturday evening, the bus driver, supervisor and helper informed the matter to police.

Later, law enforcers from Ashulia police station and a team of Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) recovered the suitcase and found the decomposed body of a young girl inside it, he added.      

Javed Masud, inspector (investigation) of Ashulia police station told The Daily Star yesterday, "We recovered the body and the bus driver and counter owner claimed that their 'missing passenger' brought the suitcase with him."

"We are trying to find the passenger who went into hiding, and identity of the victim," said Javed, "In primary investigation, we are suspecting that the girl was murdered two-three days ago."

The body of the victim was sent to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical Collage Hospital for autopsy, he added.