Looting was motive

The Rapid Action Battalion yesterday arrested the driver, who allegedly stabbed his employer's wife to death in her Gulshan home Tuesday, from the capital's Kamrangirchar area.
Driver Mintu Peyada, 40, of Salodh village under Nariya upazila in Shariatpur, was arrested with the knife used in the killing and 60 tolas of gold ornaments around 3:00pm, Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan, director of Rab Intelligence Wing, told The Daily Star.
Victim Fahima Sultana, wife of MA Mubin, deputy managing director of International Medical College at Tongi in Gazipur district, was stabbed to death inside her flat on the fifth floor of House-7 on Road-101 in Gulshan-2.
Mintu killed the Fahima in presence of her three-year-old son, who by the way was not physically harmed in the incident.
After his arrest, driver Mintu confessed to the killing and gave a detailed description of the gruesome incident to the press at a Rab briefing.
He said, "When I came to know about the huge property of my employer, I planned to rob of the family by killing madam [Fahima]. To execute the plan, I purchased a knife with Tk 150 from Badda Natun Bazar and hid it in the car.
"When madam returned home after dropping her two daughters at school in Uttara, I followed her into the apartment. As I entered the flat, house help Bina saw the knife in my hand and cried out. I stabbed her in the throat so that she could not make any more noise," said Mintu.
"Seeing me with the bloodstained knife madam asked me about it. I told her that I would kill her and loot all valuables in the house. Madam gave me all wardrobe keys and told me to take everything but to spare her life. She said she would not disclose anything to any one.
"Saying this madam tried to get away from me and I chased her all over the apartment. She also tried to hide in the bathroom. There I stabbed her indiscriminately. When I realised that she was dead, I opened all the wardrobes and took all the valuables and cash and put those in a bag", said Mintu.
He said before leaving the flat he changed his bloodstained shirt and wore a fresh shirt of his employer.
"I escaped in Mubin's car, which I abandoned on Road-128 in Gulshan,” he told the media.
According to the case filed with Gulshan Police Station on Tuesday night by the victim's husband, the driver made off with 150 tolas of gold ornaments, Tk 2 lakh in cash and other valuables worth Tk 1.05 crore.
Meanwhile, house help Bina was said to be in a critical condition in the capital's United Hospital.
Apart from driver Mintu and MA Mubin, Rab's Intelligence wing chief Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan and Media and Legal wing chief Commander M Sohail, among others, spoke in the Rab press briefing. Fahima's children and sister were also present at the time.
Mubin thanked Rab for arresting his wife's killer.
Rab Commander M Sohail said Mintu had called his wife in the village and asked her to come to Dhaka so that law enforcers could not trace him.
"Mintu's wife is on the run with the remaining ornaments and cash. We are trying to arrest her and recover the valuables looted," he told the press.