Police are set to submit a chargesheet against Sohel Rana and his wife Swapna Akhter in a case over the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Dhaka’s Pallabi area.
Confirming the development on Sunday morning, investigation officer SI Ahiduzzaman of Pallabi Police Station said preparations were underway to file the chargesheet in court the same day.
“Some procedural work is still pending. We are in the process of submitting the chargesheet against the two accused today,” he said.
Police recovered the body of the child from a flat in Pallabi on Tuesday afternoon.
According to police, Sohel Rana, a 32-year-old resident of a neighbouring flat in the same building, allegedly killed the child in the morning and severed her head after the incident. The accused reportedly escaped by cutting through a window grill.
Police later arrested his wife Swapna Akhter from their residence, while Sohel was detained the same evening from Fatullah in Narayanganj.
The victim’s father filed a case with Pallabi Police Station on the same day, naming two accused in connection with the incident.
According to the case statement, the child, a second-grade student, lived with her family in Section 11 of Pallabi. Sohel and Swapna were subtenants in another flat of the same building.
On the day of the incident, the child went out around 9:30am. Police said she was allegedly taken into the accused’s flat on the third floor of the building.
When she did not return for school, her mother began searching and later noticed her sandals outside the accused’s room around 10:30am.
After receiving no response, family members forced the door open and found the body inside.
During interrogation, Swapna Akhter reportedly told police that Sohel confined the child in the bathroom and killed her. She also alleged that he later attempted to conceal the crime before fleeing the scene.
Authorities said preparations are underway to complete the legal process, while security measures have been tightened around the case proceedings.
Meanwhile, the Dhaka Bar Association has decided that no member will provide legal assistance to the accused in the case.
The government has also appointed Azizur Rahman Dulu as special public prosecutor (PP) to conduct the case on behalf of the state.
