47-page charge sheet in Ramisa murder case reveals horrific details

Police have submitted a 47-page charge sheet in the case filed over the rape and murder of eight-year-old Ramisa Akter in Pallabi, capital.

Pallabi Police Station Sub-Inspector Ohiduzzaman submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka on Sunday, May 24. Tribunal Judge Masrur Salekin took cognisance of the charge sheet and set June 1 for the hearing on framing charges.

The charge sheet states that the main accused, Sohail Rana, is an auto-rickshaw mechanic by profession. He gave a confessional statement before a metropolitan magistrate on May 20. In his confession, Sohail said that after taking drugs regularly, he called child Ramisa from the neighbouring house into his room around 9:30 am on May 19. When the child screamed during the rape, he covered her mouth and stuffed cloth into it. Believing her to be dead after she lost consciousness, he attempted to mutilate the body with a sharp weapon to destroy evidence.

The autopsy report stated that the child died from excessive bleeding and shock due to the severing of her head. All wounds on her body were inflicted while she was alive.

The report also reveals that Sohail's wife, Swapna Khatun, helped him escape. While the child's family was searching for Ramisa, Swapna held the door shut, buying time for Sohail. He then broke the window grill and fled. Swapna opened the door only after Sohail had escaped. Swapna Khatun has also been made an accused in the case for aiding in destroying evidence and helping the accused flee.

The child's body was recovered from a flat in B-block, Sector 11, Pallabi, on Tuesday, May 19. Police detained Swapna from the flat immediately after the incident. Sohail was arrested from Fatullah in Narayanganj with the help of information technology on the same evening.

The victim's father, Abdul Hannan Molla, filed the case at Pallabi Police Station naming both as accused. Police submitted the charge sheet in the sensitive case just five days after the case was filed.