Marine engineer, wife sent to jail for murder of house help in Mymensingh

A marine engineer and his wife were sent to jail yesterday by a Mymensingh court over the murder of their house help.

The arrestees -- owners of a 14th-floor apartment in Taimur Excel Tower on Gangadas Guha Road -- are Abul Khair Md Zakir Hossain alias Sohag (44) and his wife Rifat Jesmin Jesi (30).

They were arrested by Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) personnel on Wednesday from a house in Barera area of Mymensingh, said Gautam Kumar Biswas, superintendent of police (SP) of PBI in Mymensingh, at a press briefing today.

The deceased, Sabina (20), daughter of one Sirajul Islam Siru of Ujan Ghagra village in Mymensingh, had been working at the couple's apartment for the last four years.

On November 8 last year, she was asked to prepare breakfast for guests. But when she could not due to illness, the couple tortured her severely, which led to her death.

The duo then put the body inside a suitcase and dumped it in a canal, the SP said.

The next day, the suitcase containing the body was recovered from a canal under a roadside culvert in Gauripur on Mymensingh-Kishoreganj road.

A case was filed with Gauripur Police Station on November 11 against unidentified people after the body was recovered.

The SP said a prescription recovered from the suitcase led them to the culprits.

"At one stage of our investigation into the seizure list, we found an old prescription of Zakir in the luggage. The investigation of the case started from this source," the SP said.

"After the arrest, the couple admitted to the crime," he also said, adding that the arrestees confessed to the crime before a Mymensingh court on Thursday.

Zakir and his wife in their statements also confessed that they used to torture the girl often at their apartment.

The couple has been sent to jail after their statements were recorded, the official said.

Meanwhile, Sabina's parents demanded exemplary punishment of the killers.

Talking to reporters, Sabina's father Sirajul said they were rarely allowed to meet their daughter at the house where she used to work.

"Even after the death, they [Sabina's employers] didn't tell us anything. We came to know about it on Wednesday after police informed us," the father said.

SP Gautam added that the law enforcers are investigating if anyone else were involved in the incident.