Schoolgirl’s body found in river

Police found the body of a seventh grader girl in a river beside a cremation ground in Joypurhat’s Panchbibi upazila on Monday night, 12 hours after she went out of her school in Joypurhat town.

The deceased, Ritu Paul, 13, daughter of Bishwajit Paul, a teacher residing at Sabujnagar in Joypurhat municipality, was a student of Joypurhat High School.

Like other days, Ritu went to her school on Monday morning, said her family members.

After staying at classroom for an hour, the girl, in uniform and carrying schoolbag, left the school, said Akhtar Hossain, a teacher of the school.

She was looking frustrated, said a few of her classmates, seeking anonymity.

As she did not return home after school hours, her parents went to school and then to different places including relatives’ houses in search of her.

Failing to trace Ritu, her father Bishwajit filed a diary with Sadar Police Station, stating that her daughter was missing.

In the afternoon, a local found a schoolbag at the cremation ground in Panchbibi and informed police.

“Police launched a search and found the girl’s body in the Chhoto Jamuna river around 10:00pm,” said Monsur Rahman, officer in charge (OC) of Panchbibi Police Station.

“Police officials in presence of the deceased girl’s grandmother examined her body carefully and no mark of torture or rape was found. However, she had swallowed huge quantity of water,” said Siddiqur Rahman, OC of Joypurhat Sadar Police Station.

“The body was sent to Joypurhat Modern Hospital for autopsy. The cause of the death will be clear after getting the report,” he added. 

The CCTV footages near the school and the cremation ground area showed that the girl went out of her school and got on a rickshaw-van heading toward Panchbibi and later she got down beside the cremation ground from another rickshaw-van, said the OCs of the two police stations.