Ashraful Islam Jitu thrashed his teacher Utpal Kumar Sarkar with a cricket stump – causing his death – to impress a girl at his school Haji Yunus Ali School and College, according to the Rapid Action Battalion.
RAB held a press conference to brief the media about Jitu’s arrest and the progress in its investigation, at its Media Centre in Dhaka on Thursday.
The elite police unit arrested Jitu alias Jitu Dada from Sreepur upazila of Gazipur on Wednesday evening, said RAB Legal and Media Wing Director Khandaker Al Moin.
“A few days before the incident, Utpal told Jitu to refrain from hanging out with a female student of the school. Jitu became enraged at his teacher because of this. He then devised a plan to assault his teacher to show his heroism to the girl,” Moin said.
Jitu had kept a cricket stump hidden at the school and had been waiting for an opportunity to hit Utpal with it, the RAB official added.
On Saturday, Jitu saw Utpal standing on his own at a corner of the school field during the girls’ cricket tournament and pounced on him with the stump, leaving him severely injured, Moin continued.
Utpal was taken to an area hospital and later to Enam Medical College and Hospital, where he eventually died while receiving treatment on Monday.
Jitu is a tenth-grader of the school in Ashulia.
Moin said Jitu was notorious as an undisciplined student. There were multiple accusations against Jitu of breaching school discipline and fighting on the school premises, he added.
Jitu would also tease female students in class or while going to school, he said.
The senior RAB official said Jitu had formed a teen gang to establish dominance in the area. “If someone complained to his family, he would attack them along with his gang.”
Human chain demands capital punishment
Hundreds of students and teachers from different educational institutions in Savar formed a human chain at Savar Bus Stand area demanding capital punishment for the killer of college teacher Utpal on Thursday.
Later, a delegation of teachers submitted a memorandum to Savar Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Mazharul Islam with several demands including capital punishment of suspected killer Jitu, reports UNB.
Mazharul said that security has been beefed up at schools and colleges in Savar after the incident.
