Investigators are suspecting that Farzana Akhter Liza, who was found dead in a sack floating in a pond in the capital on Tuesday, was raped and killed by someone known to her.
“We suspect that Liza was persuaded by that familiar person to go with him and it happened on the road near a shop where she went to buy a pencil on Monday afternoon. The shop is within 100 yards from her house and in the daytime, the road is used by many people. So, we can rule out that anyone unknown to her had tried to abduct her forcefully,” said Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) of the Detective Branch (DB) of police Mahfuzul Islam yesterday.
On Tuesday, the body of the nine-year-old was found in a sack floating in a small pond in Sujantek area of Bhatara, some 400 yards from her house. She was the daughter of Faruk Hossain, a car driver, and studied at a local school.
Police on Thursday arrested Mahbub Hasan Sourav, 19, son of the owner of the victim’s rented house, and he was remanded in custody for three days. The six-storey building’s watchman Abdus Salam, 52, was also shown arrested yesterday and police petitioned for a 10-day remand after producing him before a Dhaka court.
On Friday, locals, who believe that Sourav killed Liza and dumped her body with the help of Salam, got into a clash with police at Notun Bazar in the capital as they were prevented from blocking a road as part of the protest demanding immediate arrest of the killer. At least 20 people, including six policemen, were injured in the clash.
“We are considering the suspicion of locals as we carry out the probe. We have visited the place where she was picked up from and also the pond where the body was dumped,” the ADC said.
He said Sourav is an O-level student and is known as a spoilt youth in the locality.
“After talking to over 50 locals and neighbours, our suspicion that Sourav was involved in the crime has got stronger. We have seized his motorcycle which was perhaps used to dump the body. We interrogated him for only a day and we need more time before we reach any conclusion,” said Mahfuzul.
Police, however, found no concrete evidence in Salam’s room, where locals believe the girl was raped and killed. Mahfuzul said Salam would be quizzed thoroughly for any information about the crime.
“We are trying to find out if Liza was abducted from the road or went missing after returning home from the shop. We will talk to her parents who are now in Magura for her burial,” he said.
Hasibul, a maternal uncle of the victim who lives with her family, told the Dhaka Tribune that the family had no enmity with anybody and they were counting on police to bring the killer to book.
Recalling what happened on the day Liza went missing, Hasibul said the girl’s private tutor gave her a writing task but she had lost her pencil and had to go to shop to buy a new one.
“She went out but did not come back in 20 minutes. So, we went to the shop to search for her. The shopkeeper said Liza had bought a pencil from him and headed towards home. Another nearby shopkeeper also said he had seen her on the road but that was it. She just vanished afterwards,” he said.
“I think someone already known to her took her away,” he added.
A general diary was lodged with Bhatara police station after Liza went missing and Hasibul said Sourav’s father Rezaul accompanied him to the police station to file the GD.
Liza’s hands were found tied up when locals discovered the body in the sack. The body also contained numerous marks of injury.