Key accused in Beauty rape, murder case arrested

Law enforcers last night arrested the main accused in the case filed over the rape and murder of Beauty Akter of Shayestaganj upazila in Habiganj.

Babul Mia was arrested from Beanibazar area of Sylhet by a joint team of Rapid Action Battalion and police around 12:30am, Additional Superintendent of Police Maniruzzaman, senior assistant director (Media) of Rab-9, told our Moulvibazar correspondent.

Beauty, 16, went missing from Habiganj on March 16 and police recovered her body the next day. 

The teenage girl, was stalked and harassed on her way to work by Babul Mia and his accomplices. After she complained about the harassment, she was kidnapped from her home, taken to an unidentified place where she was kept hostage for a month (January 21–Febraury 21), and raped by Babul Mia.

Later, the victim's father Sayed Ali, a day labourer, filed a rape and abduction case against 11 people including Babul Mia and his mother, who is a local UP member, with Habiganj Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal.

As Babul threatened them to withdraw the case, Sayed sent his daughter to a relative's house in Lakhai upazila on March 13.

On March 16, Babul reportedly kidnapped her again and raped her and killed her. Later, the body was left in a haor in the area.

The victim's father then filed a case with Shayestaganj Police Station in Habiganj on March 18.