Two arrested in Rangpur over murder of four family members

The Detective Branch (DB) of Rangpur Metropolitan Police (RpMP), with assistance from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and other agencies, arrested two people in overnight drives for their alleged involvement in the murder of four members of the same family in the city.

RpMP Commissioner Mohammad Abdul Mabud disclosed the information while briefing reporters at his conference room this afternoon about the arrests in the sensational murder of four family members and the motive behind the killings.

Earlier, police recovered the four decomposed bodies of a popular teacher’s family from their residence in the Machhuapara area of Ward No 24 under Rangpur Metropolitan Kotwali Police Station in the city on Saturday night.

The bodies were sent to the Rangpur Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.

The deceased are Ganapati Chakraborty Jewel, 65, a retired teacher of Rangpur Zilla School; his wife, Pritilata Chakraborty Bola, 50; daughter Agami Chakraborty, 25; and son Priyam Chakraborty, 12.

Relatives found the house locked for several days and informed the police.

Later, with the help of the fire service, police broke the lock and entered the house on Saturday.

A special RpMP DB police team, led by Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Police (DB) Sanatan Chakraborty, arrested the two suspects in overnight raids in different areas of the city.

The arrestees are Mugdha Das, 23, son of Kanu Das, and Siddhartha Das, 19, son of Binoy Das, both of the Machhuapara area of Ward No 24 under Rangpur Metropolitan Kotwali Police Station in the city.

The RpMP Commissioner said, “In the initial investigation, the arrested persons confessed to committing the four murders one after another while consuming Yaba tablets on the roof of the deceased’s house about four days ago at night.”

Quoting the confessions of the arrestees, he said that when the teacher noticed some people taking Yaba tablets on the roof, he went upstairs and tried to stop them from consuming Yaba on the roof of their house.

The miscreants first killed him by wrapping a towel around his neck.

When his wife, Pritilata Chakraborty Bola, started going upstairs after hearing his moans, the miscreants killed her too by wrapping a towel around her neck on the stairs.

Later, they killed their daughter, Agami Chakraborty, when she was trying to go upstairs after hearing her mother’s moans.

“And then, they killed their sleeping son, Priyam Chakraborty, too by wrapping a towel around his neck,” the RpMP Commissioner said.

They admitted that they committed the murders because the teacher had prevented them from consuming Yaba tablets on the roof of their house.

After killing all four members of the family, Siddhartha and Mugdha took a bath in the house.

Later, they sat at the dining table, ate cucumbers and dates, and consumed the Yaba tablets they had with them.

To make the incident appear different, they scattered the furniture in the house. They burned a gold bracelet to check whether it was real or fake.

Later, they soaked the two mobile phones found in the house in water mixed with detergent powder so that there would be no fingerprints.

“On Friday, when the road was empty during Friday prayers, they left the house,” the RpMP chief said.

Gopinath Chakraborty, the elder brother of deceased teacher Ganapati Chakraborty Jewel, filed a murder case with Rangpur Kotwali Metropolitan Police Station in connection with the incident.