Mother, son murdered in city flat

The wife of a businessman and one of their sons were murdered inside their home in the capital's Kakrail area yesterday.

Police recovered the bodies around 6:30pm. Both of them bore marks of injuries from sharp weapons.

The victims were identified as Shamsun Nahar Karim, 46, wife of businessman Abdul Karim and their son Sajjadul Karim Shaon, 17, an A-level student. They lived in their own six-storey building on Kakrail VIP Road. 

Police found Shamsun Nahar's body next to a prayer mat (jainamaj) in her bedroom on the fourth floor of the building. Shaon's body was found on the staircases of the third floor.

Police could not immediately say anything about the motive behind the double murder.

Rashida Begum, a domestic help of the house, said that she came to the house just after Magrib prayers. Shamshun Nahar opened the main door for her and Rashida went straight to the kitchen. She said that she did not see anyone else when she entered the house.

“When I was cleaning the kitchen utensils, someone suddenly locked the kitchen door from outside,” she told The Daily Star.

“I shouted and knocked on the door, asking for someone to open it but no one responded. Moments later, I heard someone shouting for help from one of the rooms,” she added.

The door was later opened by the security guard of the building and after coming out Rashida saw Nahar's bloodied body. She also saw Shaon's body lying on the staircase.

Reaching the spot, this correspondent saw the area cordoned off by RAB and police officials and no one was being allowed access to the crime scene. The main gate was shut and even the tenants could not leave.

Asking around, no one could say anything regarding the murder and there were no witnesses to be found. Some people said they heard the guard saying, “please come, they have killed madam.”

Speaking to locals, it was known that the people offered their Maghrib prayers right outside Shamsun Nahar's main gate, as the nearest mosque was quite far.

Right after prayers, a resident of the building informed the guard, Abdullah Noman, that there was an altercation going on upstairs.

 Noman then rushed upstairs and saw Shaon's body. Afterwards, seeing the door to their apartment ajar, he went in and found Shamsur Nahar's body.

Locals said that they heard Noman shouting “someone has killed the mother and son” five minutes after Magrib prayers. Locals then gathered around the building hearing the screams.

Krishna Pada Roy, Joint commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), said that they have detained the guard, Abdul Karim, and the maid for interrogation and to verify whether they were involved in the murder.

The house owner was not present at home at the time of the incident, he said, adding that they did not see anything displaced inside the house.

Asked about whether anything was missing, he said that it was not possible to clearly say about that right now as they did not get the estimated property details from the owner.

Regarding family conflict or business rivalry, the joint commissioner, while addressing the briefing on the spot, said that they were investigating the case keeping “all the possibilities in mind”.

A police official also informed that Abdul Karim may have been married twice and they were looking into that as well. 

The forensic team of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was examining the crime scene.

The bodies have been sent to the morgue of Dhaka Medical College.

Abdul Basit, Karim's nephew, informed The Daily Star that Abdul Karim hailed from Munshiganj. His two other sons, Anik and Munna, are respectively in Canada and UK on student visas. He also added that he did not know of any rivalry and said he was unaware of the second marriage. 

According to sources, Karim has several types of business, including a shop in capital's Shyambazar.  Another six-storey building next to the one where the murders took place, also belonged to him.