Police early yesterday found the dead body of a HSC first year student who has been missing since January 23.
Initial investigation revealed that he was strangulated by hired killers after being kidnapped over a land ownership dispute between the victim’s father and a local.
The victim, Riyad Rahman Shourov, 16, was son of Chittagong Port Employee Mohammad Mostafa and a student of Chittagong Port Authority Boys School and College. He resided in Nilachol Residential area of the city.
Bandar police station Officer-in-Charge Jahedul Islam said police recovered the body after they arrested Abul Kashem, 25, in connection with the kidnapping and received information from him.
The OC said Riyad’s father Mostafa lodged a general dairy with the station on January 23 night mentioning that his son was missing since he did not return home after leaving for Magrib prayers.
Later, police investigated into the matter and arrested Kashem around 1am yesterday.
Then they found the victim’s body from an apartment in Chittagong city’s Patenga area around 3am after receiving information from Kashem.
Quoting Kashem, the OC said a local resident of Mostafa, who has dispute with him over land ownership, hired Kashem along with three others to kill Riyad in exchange of Tk8 lakh. All the kidnappers were from Barguna district, he added.
On January 23, Kashem’s cohort, Mohibur, who was known to the victim, phoned Riyad and asked him to come to a place to meet. Then the killers kidnapped him when he reached Mohib’s mentioned place.
Later, they took Riyad to the apartment in Patenga and killed him that night according to their plan. The killers kept the dead body in a drum, sealed it and kept it in a storeroom over a toilet in the apartment.
The OC said Kashem confessed to the crime during initial interrogation.
The dead body was sent to Chittagong Medical College morgue for autopsy and a case was lodged with Bandar police station, OC Jahedul added.
The police official said they were conducting a drive to arrest the other killers and the mastermind of the murder – the local.
However, he did not disclose any names for the sake of investigation.
