Husband held within 24 hours for killing wife, hiding body in Kalabagan freezer

Police have arrested a man within 24 hours of recovering his wife's body from a deep freezer at their home in the First Lane area of Dhaka's Kalabagan.

The arrestee, Nazrul Islam, 59, allegedly hacked his wife, Taslima Akhter, 42, to death with a machete shortly after midnight on Sunday (12 October) while she was asleep, said Ramna Division Deputy Commissioner Masud Alam at a press briefing today (15 October).

On Tuesday night, police tracked Nazrul to Nawabpur Road in Old Dhaka. He was arrested around 9:10pm and later led police to the machete hidden in his wardrobe.

According to the deputy commissioner, Nazrul confessed during interrogation. "Distrust and suspicion in their marital life appear to have driven him to commit the crime," he told reporters.

Following the murder, Nazrul tied the body with a gamchha, wrapped it in a bedsheet and scarf, and shoved it into the household freezer, Masud said. Before fleeing, he flipped the blood-soaked mattress, scrubbed the floor, and washed his clothes in an attempt to erase evidence.

Woman's body recovered from freezer in Dhaka's Kalabagan

The next morning, he woke his daughters and told them their mother had "run away with another man." He dropped them at relatives' homes in Adabor before fleeing in his car.

Suspicion grew when the girls later noticed bloodstains inside the flat. On Monday evening (13 October), they and their uncle filed a complaint with Kalabagan police. Officers broke the lock, entered the apartment, and found Taslima's body stuffed inside the freezer, wrapped in cloth.

Police said Nazrul had subjected Taslima to years of psychological and physical abuse, fuelled by jealousy and financial disputes.

Taslima, a mother of three daughters aged 19, 11, and 5, was buried following a post-mortem examination at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Legal proceedings against Nazrul are underway.