How a vanity bag helped solve murder

Tangail police have solved a mystery surrounding the murder of a woman using her vanity bag as a clue, found near the crime scene in a jungle in Tangail’s Mirzapur upazila.

On the night of November 18, an auto-rickshaw driver noticed the body of an unknown woman on a road beside a jungle. He promptly informed the police. Police sent the body for autopsy, but were struggling to identify the victim as her fingerprint was not in the forensic database.

Providing more details, Assistant Superintendent of Police (Mirzapur Circle) SM Monsur Musa said, “On the next day, we found her vanity bag in the jungle. There were some cosmetics and a prescription in it.

“Then we contacted the doctor and showed him the victim’s photo. The doctor provided information about her that helped us find out the rest.”

The victim was identified as Nargis Kawsar Sadiya, who lived in Konabari, Gazipur at a sublet house, and worked in a garment factory. A small garment clothes trader and his two siblings killed the woman after taking her to the jungle.

Hashem, along with his two brothers Hannan and Hasan, were arrested on November 20. They gave a confessional statement admitting that they had committed the murder before a court the next day.

Hashem took Tk 8 lakhs from the women to invest in his business. He signed a deal of giving her a profit of Tk 32,000 every month, but he stopped giving the money after a few instalments and planned the murder to avoid paying further, police said.

The police official added, “Sadiya actually hailed from Dhaka district and shifted to Gazipur for a job. She got acquainted with Hashem there. Hashem asked her to invest money in his business, and the two developed a good relationship.

“Sadiya sold all her ornaments and assets and gave the money to Hashem.”

All was okay until Hashem stopped paying the profit and at one stage Sadiya asked to marry her instead as they had developed a love affair. “But Hashem was married. So, he made a plan with his brothers to kill Sadiya, Musa said.

On November 18, Hashem took Sadiya on a day out by motorbike. In the evening he took her to the spot, locally known as Ajgana jungle while his brothers followed them. The brothers murdered the victim using a sharp weapon and fled the scene.

“Hashem after murder went to her sublet house and took away all of the clothes to hide her trace. We recovered the bag of clothes from Hashem’s cloth shop later,” SM Monsur Musa said.