Rumpa’s Death: Police waiting for forensic report; DB collects new footage

Investigators are waiting for the forensic report and other circumstantial evidence in order to reach a conclusion over Stamford University student Rubaiyat Sharmin Rumpa’s death.

The Detective Branch (DB) of police collected several clips of footage of the 11-storey Ayesha Shopping Complex and surrounding areas to track Rumpa’s whereabouts before her death on Wednesday.

“We’re trying to track where she [Rumpa] went after leaving home around 6:45pm that day,” Shamsul Arefin, additional deputy commissioner (Ramna Zone) of DB, told The Daily Star.

Rumpa, a second-year English student at Stamford, was found dead in an alley behind Ayesha Shopping Complex. Police learned of her identity the next day.

After primary interrogation, police have learnt that Rumpa was in a relationship with Abdur Rahman Saikat, a former student of the university, which recently took a turn for the worse. They met outside Stamford campus in Siddeshwari area around 4pm that day and had an argument, which led to Saikat breaking up with her, police say.

Investigators said Rumpa had visited the 11-storey building around 5pm that day as one of her school friends lives there on the fourth floor. During the visit, Rumpa shared her frustrations over her relationship with Saikat and cried, said police, quoting the friend.

Around 6:40pm, she returned home in Shantibagh after giving tuition classes and asked her cousin to bring a pair of sandals for her. She then left her purse and shoes with the cousin and left, wearing the sandals.

Around four hours later, her body was found in the alley. The pair of sandals was found near the body.

On Friday, police found sandal prints on an edge of Ayesha Shopping Complex’s rooftop.

Quoting her school friend, police said Rumpa had gone to the complex’s rooftop before.

After conducting her autopsy on Thursday, Dr Sohel Mahmud, head of Dhaka Medical College’s forensic medicine department, told reporters that the deceased’s hands, legs, waist and spinal cord were fractured.

Different agencies are investigating the murder case filed with Ramna Police Station. The case was shifted to DB on Saturday.

On Sunday, Saikat was arrested and placed on a four-day remand in connection with Rumpa’s death.

Saikat was a BBA student at Stamford University. But after one semester, he transferred to a college under National University because of a family crisis, he claimed to this newspaper before his arrest.

Police said they could not yet say whether it was a murder or suicide.