The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) said burn mark and previous theft record helped police to identify and arrest domestic help Ayesha. She allegedly killed her employer, Laila Afroz, and her 15-year-old daughter, Nafisa Nawal Binte Aziz, at their Mohammadpur home following a confrontation over stealing Tk 2,000.
DMP Additional Commissioner S N Nazrul Islam, at a press briefing on Thursday, said Ayesha was identified by a distinctive burn mark on her neck along with a history of theft at previous places of employment.
"Ayesha had started working for the household just four days before the killings. On her second day at work, she stole Tk 2,000. When Laila questioned her the next day, an altercation broke out, although Ayesha denied the theft," he said.
On the fourth day, Ayesha reportedly went to work carrying a switchgear knife. As Laila was preparing to call her husband about the missing money, Ayesha attacked her to stop the call. Hearing her mother's scream, 15-year-old Nafisa rushed out of her room. Ayesha then stabbed the teenager multiple times.
The DMP official also said Nafisa tried to call the building's security guard through the intercom, but its cable had been torn out. Ayesha went to the bathroom after the attack, changed out of her blood-stained clothes, and put on Nafisa's school uniform in an attempt to disguise herself.
She then washed the two knives and left them in a bucket before fleeing the apartment with a laptop, a mobile phone, and other valuables stuffed into her backpack.
Ayesha later changed clothes again at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, and headed towards Savar. On the way, she dumped the stolen phone and her blood-stained garments into the river from the Singair Bridge to destroy evidence.
The DMP official further said as Ayesha wore a burqa while entering and leaving the home, CCTV cameras did not clearly capture her face. The victim's family also did not have her accurate address, making identification far more difficult. But a burn mark on Ayesha's neck proved to be a crucial clue.
"We reviewed the house-help theft cases, reported to Mohammadpur Police Station over the past year, and noticed similarities with an incident on Humayun Road in July, where Tk 8,000 and a gold ring were stolen. The suspect in that case was also named Ayesha; and she, too, had a burn injury on her neck."
Police collected the phone number that Ayesha used from the victim's family. It helped investigators track her to Hemayetpur in Savar, where she and her husband Rabby had rented a flat.
With information from Ayesha's mother and technological surveillance, police later arrested her from her husband's parental home in Charkaya village in Jhalakathi.
talhabinhabib@yahoo.com
