Bangladesh News

The two murderers who tortured and killed two schoolboys in city’s Nayatola area in April, yesterday spoke to the press for the first time about how they committed the gruesome killings while under the influence of drugs.

At a press conference held at the Detective Branch (DB) of Police in the city, Ronju Sarder and Liton, both in their 30s, related how they killed the two boys while smoking cannabis in an abandoned house in Nayatola.

The two men also said that they had abused other young boys before.

Ronju Sarkar said that on the day of the crime, he and Liton had been smoking cannabis when they saw two young boys walking near their den. They lured the two boys into the abandoned house.

“We raped Biplab first. Then we stabbed him to death because he was screaming very loudly. After Biplab we also violated Jewel and stabbed him to death as well so that there would be no witness left to the whole matter,” Ronju said.

“We then left their bodies in the abandoned house and fled the area,” he added.

Liton however told the press that they had not intended to murder the boys. He blamed the crime on the “influence of cannabis they had been smoking”.

“We did not know these boys personally and they did not know us. We did not want to kill them. But we had a knife in our possession at the time and carried out the crimes under the influence of the cannabis,” he said.

Ramna police recovered the decomposed bodies of Jewel, son of rickshaw-puller Alaluddin, and Biplab, son of private car driver Siddique Sheikh, three days after the killing.

Assistant Commissioner (AC) of DB Police Nasiruddin Khan, leader of the investigation team, told the press, “We were clueless about the reason behind the brutal killings and so started investigating the area. We talked to local residents and prepared a list of five people in the area suspected to child abusers, and investigated them.”

“We arrested three of them and based on information retrieved from them we arrested Ranju on June 25 and Liton on June 27 from Maghbazar area. Both were known in the area as muggers,” he said.

During interrogation, both men admitted to the killings and also confessed that they were involved in other criminal activities in the area, including muggings.

Biplab’s mother Bilkis Begum came to the DB office yesterday to see her son’s killers.

Breaking down in tears, Bilkis told the The Daily Star that she wanted exemplary punishment of her son’s killers. She said that she did not want any more mothers to lose their innocent children at the hands of such inhuman people.

Bilkis also told the press that the two murders had repeatedly threatened both her and Jewel’s parents over telephone, causing Jewel’s parents to flee the area they lived in one and a half months ago.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Naim Ahmed held the local people also responsible for the brutal murders, saying, “Though the abandoned house was regularly being used by the criminals, none of the locals showed any social responsibility in informing the matter to police or any other authorities.”

“Most of the slum children remain vulnerable and the criminals are always on the lookout for chances”, the DMP Commissioner said.

“Parents and guardians have to be more careful about the safety of their children,” he said.