Father of rape, murder accused 'commits suicide'

A father of an accused of rape and murder case reportedly committed suicide in Brahmanbaria today.

The deceased Basu Mia of Shalgaon village in Sadar upazila was the father of one Nayeem Islam, who has been accused of raping and murdering his ninth-grader sister-in-law.

Basu’s body was found hanging from a tree near his relative's house in Gosaipur village of Nabiganj upazila around 10:00am, Raju Ahmed, inspector (investigation) of Nabinagar Police Station, told our Brahmanbaria correspondent.

He took shelter at his relative’s house after his son was sued for raping and murdering the 15-year-old girl on Thursday.

“He might have committed suicide due to the incident,” the police official said.

Basu Mia's body was sent to Brahmanbaria General Hospital for autopsy.

Meanwhile, police arrested Nayeem this morning, hours after the death of his father, Atiqur Rahman, inspector (Investigation) of Brahmanbaria Sadar Model Police Station, said.

Police on Thursday recovered the body of Tamanna, 15, from the residence of Nayeem. She was a student of Shalgaon-Kalishima High School.

Talking to The Daily Star, her elder sister Smriti Akter said Tamanna was staying at her home on Wednesday.

Smriti’s husband Nayeem Islam, 28, brought home mango juice at night. Soon after drinking the juice, Smriti fell asleep.

She woke up the next morning and found the bloodstained body of her sister on the bed of a room at the house. She also found that Nayeem fled home.

Smriti suspected that Nayeem, a night guard, might have killed her sister after raping her.