Police have arrested four suspects involved in the murder of Apratim, son of a Comilla University Bengali department teacher, within 12 hours, and the accused are essentially members of a juvenile gang, Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmad stated.
Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmad shared details of this brutal murder in Cumilla during an urgent press conference held today, Sunday, at the Secretariat’s Home Ministry conference room. He stated that the murder of Ishayat Shahriar Apratim (13), the only child of Nahida Begum, Associate Professor of the Bengali Department at Comilla University, and K M Firoz Shahriar, a mobile accessories businessman, is extremely tragic. In this incident, the body was recovered within 24 hours of the child’s disappearance, and through effective police action, four individuals involved were arrested within the following 12 hours. They have already confessed to their crime.
During the press conference, the Home Minister revealed that although the arrestees were 5 to 10 years older than the victim, Apratim associated and was friends with them. They essentially operated like a juvenile crime gang. The minister praised the efficiency of the police in quickly recovering circumstantial evidence, including the iPhone Apratim had with him. Additionally, he assured that the government would take steps to submit the investigation report for the Apratim murder case as swiftly as in the case of the rape and murder of an eight-year-old child in Pallabi.
The Home Minister blamed the influence of drugs and gambling for the moral decay, social degradation, and rising crime in society. He emphasized that conscious citizens of the country must step forward to address the situation. Stressing that efforts should not be limited to trials alone, he highlighted the need to strengthen sports and cultural activities at the primary and secondary school levels to raise children into proper human beings. He also claimed that the present government is successfully uncovering the truth behind every heinous crime in a timely manner.
The deceased 13-year-old Apratim was a seventh-grade student at Border Guard Public School in the Kotbari area. He lived with his parents in the Kotbari area under Ward No. 24 of Cumilla Sadar South Police Station. Notably, Apratim left home last Friday afternoon taking his mother’s iPhone, saying he was going to take photos with friends. Nearly 22 hours after his disappearance, police recovered his body from the jungle of Lalmai Hill in Sananda village adjacent to Comilla University, and he was buried following necessary forensic examinations and an autopsy.
