The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) arrested a youth from Jainabazar’s Abdar area of Sreepur upazila, Gazipur, early morning on Monday on the charge of killing four individuals of a family on Thursday.
The arrested is a 17-year-old boy and has confessed to killing the four, according to PBI Inspector Hafizur Rahman.
“We conducted a drive in the area and arrested the accused. He eventually confessed to killing the family and later revealed the whereabouts of the valuables he robbed from the premises after the murders,” said Hazifur.
“Acting on his information, we recovered items of gold jewellery, blood-soaked clothes and mobile phone which belonged to the murdered family from his room,” the official added.
The PBI inspector said the police would reveal details of the investigation at a press briefing later on Monday.
Earlier, on Thursday, police recovered the bodies of four members of a family, with their throats slit, from a two-storey building in Jaina Bazar area of Telihati union under Sreepur upazila.
The deceased were identified as Fatema Begum, 40, her two daughters Nura, 16, Haurin, 11, and her mentally challenged son Fadil, 7.
Fatema's brother-in-law Arif said that Fatema had called him and asked him to do grocery shopping for her on Wednesday.
"When I failed to make them open the door for me after repeated attempts, I climbed up through the window and found the bodies of the four with their throats slit," said Arif.
On Friday, a case was filed with Sreepur police station by the deceased woman’s father-in-law accusing unnamed people including the prime suspect 17-year-old.
According to Sreepur Police OC Liakat Ali, the accused was on parole in a rape and murder case. He was the prime suspect in the rape and murder of a seven-year-old child named Nilima, but as he was underaged, the court granted him bail, said the officer.
The plaintiff in the rape case, Nilima’s father Hasan said: “Not only he killed my daughter, he regularly gave us death threats and I had to file another case against him to ensure my family’s safety.
Locals said the accused is a top criminal of the area and was also involved in the drug trafficking business.
Inspector Hafizur Rahman of PBI said: “We investigated the incident from different angles and I highly suspect that accused along with his gang killed the four.”