Also Read - Missing Rangpur PP Rathish’s body recovered
A special public prosecutor of a Rangpur court, Rathish had been representing the state in a case filed over the murder of Japanese citizen Kunio Hoshi and Rahmat Ali, a staff of a shrine in the district, reportedly by members of banned militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Why and how Ratish was murdered
Soon after the body was recovered, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Director General Benazir Ahmed said Ratish’s wife Dipa and her colleague Quamrul strangled the lawyer to death on the night of March 29. “Dipa had been in an extramarital relationship with Quamrul. She sedated Rathish after feeding him milk and rice laced with 10 hypnotic pills,” the RAB chief said. “Dipa and Quamrul made the plot to kill Rathish two months ago, and three other people assisted them in executing their plan.” At dawn of March 30, the duo put his body in an almirah and took it to the under-construction building by a van, where they buried it. Two of Quamrul’s students — Sabuj Islam and Rukonuzzaman — dug a hole to hide the body in exchange for Tk300 each, Benazir said. Police filed a case with Kotwali police station over the murder.Dipa’s statement
Dipa, Quamrul, Sabuj and Rukonuzzaman were produced before the court of the additional chief judicial magistrate on Thursday at around 10pm. The court placed Quamrul on 10 days of remand as he refused to give his confessional statement in the case. It sent the other three to jail after recording their statements.Also Read - 4 accused in Rangpur PP murder case to be produced in court
Dipa said in her statement that she had “never been happy” in her 25 years with Ratish, and disclosed the names of 25 women with whom she claimed he had been in extra-marital relationships with at different times. Annoyed with her husband over his such attitudes, Dipa, too, developed an extra-marital affair with Quamrul, she confessed, adding that they had had altercations on several occasions after Ratish came to know about the matter. “At one point, I decided to marry Quamrul,” she said. “So we plotted to kill Ratish some two months ago and started finding ways to hide his body accordingly.” She added that they planned to cover up the incident by putting the murder charge on JMB militants as Ratish had been dealing with a case filed against them over the killings of Hoshi and Rahmat.