"Take me, father. If you don't take me quickly, you will have to take the body." - Roksana Akhter, a housewife from Sitakunda, Chittagong, called her father six hours before her death. The eight-month pregnant woman was burned to death on Wednesday afternoon.
The deceased's father, rickshaw puller Nurul Alam, filed a case with Sitakunda Police Station on Thursday in this incident. He named Roksana's brother-in-law Mohammad Mostafa and his wife Tayyaba Akhter Swapna as accused in the case.
Sitakunda Model Police Station OC Tofail Ahmed said that when Mostafa and his wife Tayyaba Akhter Swapna were produced in court in the afternoon in the case of housewife Roksana's murder, they admitted responsibility and gave statements. In addition, neighbor Hosne Ara Begum, an eyewitness to the incident, gave a statement. Judges Mahmudul Haque, Abdullah Khan and Fardin Mustakim Tasnim of the Chittagong Chief Judicial Magistrate Court recorded their statements.
He said that in the statement, Mustafa and Swapna confessed to killing Roksana in a planned manner. The couple had been plotting to deprive their mentally unstable younger brother Anwar Hossain Kibria (Roksana's husband) of his property. Three months ago, they hired a man for 50,000 taka to kill Roksana. A few days ago, there was a dispute over cutting the drain at the house. After that, Mustafa became desperate to kill her. To implement the plan, Mustafa bought gloves and 90 taka of kerosene oil from the local Banshbaria market on Wednesday morning. Then, Mustafa and his wife entered Roksana's house with a piece of wood. Roksana was hit on the head with a piece of wood and fell to the ground unconscious. Then, kerosene was poured over her body and set on fire. Since there was cotton in the house, people in the neighborhood came running when smoke came out. When the neighboring tenant Hosne Ara Begum came and saw her, Mustafa chased her away by threatening to kill her. After confirming death, the body was placed on the bed. The court was told that Mustafa had planned to burn everything by exploding a gas cylinder.
The body of eight-month pregnant Roksana was recovered from her husband's house in Jorbattatol Rahmaterpara village of Banshbaria union of the upazila on Wednesday. She was carrying twins. Sitakunda Model Police Station handed over the body to her relatives after conducting an autopsy at Chittagong Medical College on Thursday morning. Later in the afternoon, the body was buried at her father's house in Madambibirhat Khadempara of the upazila.
At that time, the deceased's father Nurul Alam said, "My daughter was killed to seize property. Vashur Mustafa and Ja Swapna had already been torturing my daughter. On Friday, she called and said, 'Father, Vashur and Ja have increased the level of torture. They are throwing her out of the house.' Then, on Wednesday, around 10 am, they called again and said, 'Take me, father. If you don't take me quickly, you will have to take my body.' I consoled her and said, 'I will talk to the local elders and come to pick me up on Friday.' Six hours later, I received news of my daughter's death.
Crying, he said, "My daughter endured all the torture to sustain my family in a world of poverty. But I couldn't save her. I want the murderers hanged."
Meanwhile, immediately after the incident, the police arrested the Mustafa couple, Roksana's husband Anwar Hossain Kibria, and her brother-in-law, document writer Harun-or Rashid. The other two were sent to jail by the court as they were not charged in the case.
