CNG driver also raped schoolgirl before strangling her to death in Cumilla: Police

A seventh-grade school student, Jannatul Tajmin, from the Racecourse area of Cumilla city, was taken to a secluded place in a CNG-powered auto-rickshaw, raped and then strangled to death. Police said the accused auto-rickshaw driver, Suman, has been arrested in Chattogram in connection with the incident.

Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime) Pankaj Barua confirmed the information at a press conference held at the District Superintendent of Police's office on Saturday, October 10. Earlier, based on information provided by the driver, the iPhone used by the deceased student was recovered.

Police said Tajmin got into Suman's auto-rickshaw after getting off a long-distance bus last Wednesday night to return to her home in the Racecourse area. Finding the teenager alone late at night, the driver began driving along a different route instead of going to her destination. Sensing something was wrong, Tajmin sent her father a 'live location' and a message through her own WhatsApp from the auto-rickshaw, pleading for him to take her back. However, as family members were asleep late at night, they did not see the message in time.

The auto-rickshaw passed through Bijra, Rasulpur and Shikaripara and stopped at a secluded paddy field in Jagatpur village of Lalmai upazila. There, Tajmin tried to run away through several paddy fields to save herself but failed. During a struggle at the scene, she was strangled to death with a gamchha (thin towel), and the driver, Suman, left the auto-rickshaw in the paddy field and fled. On Thursday morning, Lalmai Police Station police recovered Tajmin's body and the auto-rickshaw lying nearby from the spot.

Investigation officers said the mystery of the murder was unravelled by identifying the official details of the deceased Tajmin as well as reviewing the call list of the recovered mobile phone. The deceased, Jannatul Tajmin, was the daughter of Abdul Alim of Chhatiyatla village in Jashore Sadar upazila. As her father worked in the Cumilla region for Renata Pharmaceuticals, the family lived in a rented house in the Racecourse area of Cumilla city. She was a seventh-grade student of Farida Bidyatan in the city; however, authorities said she had been absent from school since February this year.

According to the deceased student's family, Tajmin left home on the morning of October 4 saying she was going to a friend's house. Later, she was last seen in front of Hotel Nurjahan in the city at 12:19am on Wednesday. A few hours later, at 2:58am, she sent a live location to her father on WhatsApp. The next morning, after her body was recovered as unidentified, relatives went and identified her.

In the incident, the deceased's father filed a murder case with Lalmai Police Station against unidentified individuals as complainant. Later, the District Detective Police (DB) arrested the main accused auto-rickshaw driver in the incident after conducting an operation.