Couple found dead in a Banani flat

Police recovered bullet-hit bodies of a couple from a flat in the capital's Banani DOHS area yesterday evening.

The dead were identified as Abdur Rouf alias Rob, 55, owner of Afsar Group of Industries, and his wife Roksana Parveen, 45.

Atiqur Rahman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Cantonment Police Station, confirmed the recovery of the bodies from a flat on Road-5 of the area.

The OC, however, could not say anything about the motive behind the murders.

The couple have three sons and a daughter who were not at home during the incident. Only their maid-servant, Firoza begum, 60, was at home at the time of the killings, family sources said.

Police recovered a pistol and a few rounds of bullet from in front of Rouf's body. Family members claimed it was a licensed weapon.

Referring to the pistol, Inspector Saiful Islam of Cantonment Police Station said, "Based on the evidence I suspect that the husband at first shot his wife in a fit of anger and then shot himself."

The deceased's daughter, Sonali, 15, went to a nearby playground around 4.00pm and came back home about two and a half hours later to find her parents dead.

"When I came back home, the front door was open and I went to my parents' bedroom where I found my mother lying prostrate on bed. My mother did not respond when I called her. Then I found my father sitting in one corner of the room with blood dripping from his head," Police quoted Sonali as saying.

Kamrul Majid, director of security and admin at Banani DOHS, said he rushed to the scene after hearing the news from a neighbour.

The maid servant said she could not hear anything due to the sound of the ceiling fan, said Majid quoting Firoza.

The security guard of the house confirmed that no unknown person went in or came out of the building between 4:00pm and 7:00pm when the murders were committed, said Majid adding that nothing was stolen from the house.

A team of Rab visited the scene while another team of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) were collecting evidence from the spot as of filing this report at 1:30am today.

Relatives of the dead said Rouf incurred considerable business loss and was saddled with bank loans which kept him very frustrated for a long time. He also picked a few fights with his wife now and then, they added.

Police sent the bodies to the Dhaka Medical Morgue.