Share of loot led to Keraniganj 4-murder

A row over distribution of the loot led to the murder of a couple and their two children in Dhaka's Keraniganj on Tuesday night, police said.

Apart from this, the investigators identified two other motives, including extramarital affairs, behind the murders.

Five members of a robbery ring executed the killings, the police said yesterday after arresting and interrogating seven people, including two alleged killers, Johny and Sumon alias CNG Sumon.

Johny was arrested from Munshiganj's Srinagar and Suman from Gazipur's Bhawal Mirzapur early yesterday.

Five more people, including three women, were arrested for assisting the murderers to flee and informing them of police movements, said Superintendent of Police Habibur Rahman of Dhaka at a press briefing at Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Media Centre yesterday.

On Wednesday morning, bodies of Mohammad Saju, 30, his wife Ranji Begum, 25, their seven-year-old son Imran and two-year-old daughter Sanjida were found in their Kadampur residence in South Keraniganj on the outskirts of the capital.

During the press briefing, SP Habibur said Saju was a member of the same robbery gang which Johny and Suman belonged.

Saju was murdered following a dispute over sharing of gold ornaments looted from a jewellery store at Churain Bazar in Nawabganj. Besides, he allegedly had extramarital affairs with Johny's wife and with one of the four wives of another Sumon known as Dakat Sumon.

Dakat Sumon, who is currently absconding, also suspected Saju for the theft of his motorbike.

"All these factors led up to the killings," Habibur Rahman said, on the basis of information gleaned from the arrestees.

According to police, Dakat Suman called Ranji to inquire about Saju's whereabouts. After that, he along with Johny, CNG Suman, Nasir and Afsana converged at Saju's flat in the evening. Nasir and Afsana are also on the run.

Around 11:30pm, the five confined Ranji and her two children to another room and tied up Saju's hands and legs before strangling him.

Then the accused took Yaba in that room and brought Ranji into the room, tied her hands and legs, gagged her and strangled her around 2:30am, the police official said.

Later, they killed the two children the same way.

The arrestees were produced before the press at the DMP Media Centre. Both Johny and CNG Suman behaved quite normally as if nothing wrong had happened.

Johny, who claimed to have reached the victim's flat at last, told reporters that upon entering the apartment he found Saju engaged in a heated brawl with the rest four. "We beat up Saju before killing him."

Johny also admitted that it's he who had killed the two children though the others had asked him not to.