A man slaughtered his wife in front of his children and mother-in-law in Rajahar village under Gobindaganj upazila in Gaibandha in the early hours yesterday, police said.
Police recovered the body of the victim, Nurjahan Begum, 40, in the morning and sent it to Gaibandha Modern Hospital for a post-mortem. The husband, Monju Miah, 45, is in hiding.
Mehedi Rasel, officer-in-charge of investigation at Gobindaganj police station, said Monju broke into Nurjahan’s bedroom with six-seven thugs around 1:30am. They tied up and gagged Nurjahan’s sons Nurunnabi, 8, and Zahidul, 6 months, and mother Samtya Banu, 65, and slit Nurjahan’s throat in front of them.
Monju was not happy about his marriage with Nurjahan and was forced into it, said Zahidul Islam, officer-in-charge of Gobandaganj police station.
He raped her on June 13 last year when she took her goat out for grazing in a field near her house which resulted in her getting pregnant, the OC said.
When word got out about what happened, the local arbitrators decided to marry Monju and Nurjahan, and their marriage was registered on January 14 this year.
However, later Monju showed reluctance to accept his child Zahidul and his marriage socially, which compelled Nurjahan to file a case against him on March 14. When Monju went to police to obtain bail in the case, he was arrested, the OC said, adding that he was recently released from prison after getting bail.
He also said police was preparing to file a case in this regard.