Police suspect relatives for Reshma murder

Conflicts of interest, arising from complicated relationships following three marriages of her father and two of her mother, may have lead to the murder of Mirpur college student Amena Khatun Reshma at her home, police suspect. Police have already arrested Reshma's step brother ‘Robin’, 22, and ‘Milon’, the security guard of the building where the murder took place on Thursday. Reshma's father Alamgir Hossain is a class-IV employee of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC). Mirpur Model Police Station OC Md Salahuddin said Hossain’s first wife stayed at BCIC Staff Quarter at Mirpur with her sons Robin and ‘Rakib’, 20. Hossain lived with the second wife, Mariam Begum, and their daughter Reshma on the first floor of a five-storey building at Rainkhola in Mirpur’s Sector 2. Reshma’s body was recovered from this flat. Mariam Begum said Robin would come to their home regularly to threaten them. She had another two daughters, married off long ago, from her first marriage. Hossain has two minor children with her third wife Khodeza Begum, who lives in Jhalakathi. OC Salahuddin said Khodeza, who often threatened to murder Mariam Begum and her daughter, was another suspect.
 
On Thursday night, Mariam filed a case with Mirpur Model Police Station. The OC said she named none as accused in her deposition but she suspected Robin and Khodeza could be involved in the murder. Speaking to this correspondent, Mariam said, “Robin often used to threaten us.
 
But Alamgir Hossain protested, saying Robin used to leave after meeting him outside the house. Mariam said Robin’s permission to come inside their house was withdrawn only after he threatened her and her daughter. She said her husband married Khodeza about ten years after their marriage. She claimed Khodeza used to threaten to kill her and Reshma whenever she went to Jhalakathi to bring her husband back.
 
During Thursday’s incident, neighbours heard Reshma screaming for help. Police, quoting a child witness, said Reshma went to the veranda at one point of the incident. A woman dragged her inside the room with a red scarf, the witness said. Mariam said about 7 bhori gold and a good amount of money were stolen from the home. Police officers said this was not an incident of robbery. The killers took away the valuables after completing their mission of killing Reshma. Alamgir had been living in the first-floor apartment since last February, said Mohammed Masud, a resident of the apartment complex. The flat where Reshma was killed is owned by Mariam. She claimed to have paid half of the Tk2.3 million price of the flat by selling off her land in the Noakhali village.

“My daughter has been killed for this flat before it is registered in my name,” the mother said. OC said Alamgir Hossain’s two other wives were jealous of Mariam Begum after the flat was bought.
He said police also suspected involvement of the son-in-laws of Hossain’s first wife in the murder. Alagmir’s third wife Khodeza might have murdered Reshma with the help of professional killers, he said.

“The needle of suspicion primarily points at relatives. But investigations will reveal if anyone else was there,” the OC said, according to bdnews24.com.