Rahima Begum claims she was kidnapped

Rahima Begum, the Khulna woman who was found 28 days after going missing, was released under the custody of her daughter Adri Akhter Sunday.

Magistrate Sarwar Ahmed of Khulna Metropolitan Court-4 passed the order on Sunday after Rahima Begum provided her statement at the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Md Alamin.

Although Rahima claimed that she had been kidnapped because of a land dispute she had with some locals, police said Rahima went into hiding herself.

Rahima was rescued from Faridpur's Syedpur village on Saturday night. Then, she was brought to Khulna's Daulatpur police station around 2:10am. Later she was first shifted to the victim support centre in Sonadanga and then to the Khulna offices of the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI).

Khulna PBI Superintendent of Police Syed Mushfiqur Rahman said, "We interrogated her but she did not say anything until her daughter and other family members came to the PBI office in the afternoon."

"When Rahima's daughter Mariam hugged her mother, she burst into tears," said the PBI police super.

"She claimed three people including neighbours Kibria and Mohiuddin kidnapped her. They detained her somewhere and made her sign on a blank stamp. Later they released her after giving her Tk1,000," he added.

"Rahima Begum claimed she could not recognise anything. At one point, she went to the Syedpur village of Boalkhali Upazila of Faridpur, where a previous tenant in her house lived. She could not contact anyone as he did not have a mobile number," Mushfiqur Rahman said.

The PBI official added that they are verifying Rahima Begum's statement and she has been sent to the court.

He also said that they found a bag in Rahima's possession, which contained medicines, clothes and other goods.

"It is unlikely for a kidnapped person to have these things with her, so, it may not be kidnapping after all," said the police official.

Earlier late on Saturday night, Khulna Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Mollah Jahangir Hossain told the media that Rahima was rescued from the house of Quddus Molla after the KMP conducted a drive there.

Police also detained three people, including Quddus Molla's wife, son and the wife of Quddus's brother from the house for questioning. Relatives of Quddus told police that Rahima had been staying in the house since 17 September.

Rahima Begum had been missing from Uttar Banikpara in Khulna since 27 August last month, said her daughter Mariam Mannan.

Her family members filed a general diary at Daulatpur Police Station. Later, one of Rahima Begum's daughters, Adri Akhter, 22, filed a case with the police facility accusing some people. Police have arrested six people in the case so far. All of them were arrested between 6-10 August.

Mariam and her brothers and sisters went to meet their mother Sunday morning. However, Rahima did not respond to them.

On September 14, a court ordered the case to be transferred to the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI). The PBI then accepted the documents on 17 September, following due process. PBI Inspector Abdul Mannan was given the charge to investigate the case.

On Friday (23 September), three daughters of Rahima Begum, including Mariam, claimed that the body of a woman which was recovered 12 days ago in Mymensingh was their mother's.

"My mother has been missing for 27 days. We are constantly looking for our mother. In the meantime, we have come here after receiving the news of the recovery of the body of an unidentified woman at Phulpur police station on 10 September. Apart from salwar-kameez, the forehead and hands in the picture seemed to be my mother," Mariam said.

However, Mariam was informed by the police that it is not possible to confirm the identity of the body without a DNA test.

"Mariam's mother is 55 years old. The decomposing body we recovered appears to be approximately 28 to 32 years old. Considering these aspects, the body cannot be confirmed as her mother's," Phulpur Police Station Inspector (Investigation) Abdul Motaleb Chowdhury said on Friday.