Man held in Sylhet over death of wife

A housewife was allegedly killed by her husband at Akhalia in Sylhet on Wednesday night, who police said may have tried to cover up her death as suicide.

The deceased is Farida Parveen, 24. She lived with her husband Rubel Ahmed and two sisters-in-law -- both of them minors.

Rubel brought Farida to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hsoital on Wednesday night, claiming she tried to kill herself. Doctors declared her brought dead.

However, upon complaint from the victim’s family yesterday morning that she might have been murdered, police recovered the body from the hospital in the afternoon, and sent it for autopsy.

Police also detained Rubel from the hospital, while Farida’s father Abdul Matin filed a murder case with Jalalabad Police Station accusing Rubel and two unnamed persons, said Okil Uddin, officer-in-charge of the police station.

Rubel’s father is an expatriate and his mother lives in their village home. He was unemployed, and was trying to go abroad for work, said Okil.

“She got married to Rubel a year ago. Since then, they have been having family problems over many issues including dowry, and was also tortured by her husband,” alleged Farida’s uncle Sujan Miah.

“She spoke to her parents around 9pm and everything seemed normal. At 11pm, we came to know that she died at the hospital.”

Okil Uddin said, “Rubel’s family claimed that she died by suicide, but we found injury marks on her body, and have enough reasons to believe that she was murdered.”

“We suspect that after murdering her by hanging with scarf, her husband tried to cover up the incident and took her body to the hospital claiming she died by suicide. We will be investigating the matter further after getting the autopsy report,” he said.