In a sensational twist to the Banasree double murder case, the mother of the two slain children, Mahfuja Maleq Jesmin, yesterday confessed to having strangled her daughter Urni and son Alvi to death. However, two different statements from the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the elite force, have generated confusion over the killings. Jesmin confessed to the law enforcers that she had killed her kids around 5:30 pm on Monday at their Banasree residence in the city’s Rampura area.
Mufti Mahmood Khan, director (media) of the RAB Headquarters at Uttara, told journalists at noon after interrogating Jesmin that she had attributed the motive to “her anxiety”. She had been worried about her children’s studies and their future. She had believed her kids would not have a bright future.
Mahmood stated at the media briefing that Jesmin had completed an MA in Management and had worked as a teacher in Dewanganj School and College in Jamalpur. Being well educated herself, she was worried about her kids’ studies and their future.
However, in the morning, the RAB had said Mahfuza Jesmin killed her two children—Nusrat Jahan Urni, 14, a Class VII student of the Viqarunnisa Noon School, and her younger brother, Alvi Aman, 6, a nursery student of the Holy Crescent School—as a result of insanity, caused by an extramarital relationship or family problems.
On Wednesday, the RAB arrested Amanullah, Mahfuza and Afroza Malek—the father, mother and maternal aunt of the two siblings—from Jamalpur district to quiz them over the mysterious deaths of the two siblings.
On the day the kids were killed, Alvi was asleep in his patents’ bedroom. Jesmin allegedly took Urni into the same room. A scuffle between Urni and Jesmin ensued when the mother tried to strangulate her daughter with her scarf. Finally, Jesmin succeeded in killing her. Alvi was then choked to death in his sleep.
Later, Jesmin informed her husband Amanullah, who had gone out on work, over telephone that their kids were ill. Doctors declared the children dead after they were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), disclosed Mufti Mahmood. Mahmood also said more information on the killings would come to light after further interrogation. The family had claimed that the children died after eating the leftovers of food brought from a local Chinese restaurant the previous night. The parents wanted to take back the kids’ bodies from the hospital, but the hospital authorities refused to give them the bodies without conducting autopsies. The forensic experts at DMCH found bruises and fingerprints on the minor’s throats, as well as injury marks on several parts of their bodies, during the autopsy the next day. The development caused the RAB to join the investigation. A RAB team pickedi up the parents and an aunt of the siblings from Jamalpur on Wednesday and brought them to Dhaka for questioning.
The officer in-charge (OC) of Rampura Police Station, Rafiqul Islam, said Amanullah might file a case against his wife for murdering the kids. “He talked to me. We will record the case if he comes to the police,” he added.