Two accused in the case over the killing of former schoolteacher Ganapati Chakraborty, his wife, son and daughter in Rangpur have been sent to Dhaka under police escort for DNA tests.
Investigation Officer Jinnat Ali, also officer-in-charge of the Metropolitan Detective Branch (DB) police, took the two accused, Mugdha Das and Siddhartha Das, from Rangpur Central Jail on Sunday evening and left for Dhaka under tight security.
Sanatan Chakraborty, spokesperson for Rangpur Metropolitan Police and deputy commissioner of the DB, confirmed the matter.
Meanwhile, 36 types of evidence recovered from Ganapati’s house by a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) crime scene team after the killings were also sent to the CID office in Dhaka on Sunday night, sources said.
Earlier, Jinnat obtained court permission to take the two accused from Rangpur Central Jail to Dhaka for DNA tests. They are scheduled to undergo the tests at the CID office on Monday.
A police source said preliminary evidence of rape was found during autopsies after sperm was detected on the bodies of Ganapati’s wife, Pritilata Chakraborty, and daughter, Agami Chakraborty.
The source said the accused were taken to Dhaka to determine whether their DNA matches samples collected during the autopsies.
A police official said: “If the samples found during the autopsies match the accused’s DNA, it will change the course of the case. Besides the claim that the four were killed for resisting drug use, the allegation that the two women were raped before the killings will also come to the fore.”
Sanatan said the accused had been sent to Dhaka for DNA tests and that the evidence recovered from the house immediately after the killings had also been sent to Dhaka for examination.
On Saturday night, August 22, police recovered the bodies of Ganapati, his wife Pritilata, daughter Agami and young son Ayash from their home in Masuapara of Rangpur city.
Police arrested Mugdha and Siddhartha in connection with the killings. The following day, August 23, the two accused gave confessional statements before a court under Section 164, admitting that they had strangled the four victims one after another for preventing them from using drugs.
However, relatives of the deceased, legal experts and members of the public have questioned whether the two accused could have killed all four victims in this manner. Questions have also been raised over the role of police in the case.