'I do not want justice because you cannot deliver it,' cries Ramisa's father

The father of seven-year-old Ramisa Akter, who was brutally murdered in the capital's Pallabi area yesterday (19 May), has refused to seek justice from the authorities, stating that the state holds no credible record of delivering closure to victims.

"I do not want justice because you cannot deliver it. You have no record of delivering justice," Abdul Hannan Molla told reporters today (20 May).

Mourning the loss of his daughter, Molla expressed bitter scepticism over institutional accountability, stating that the authorities will fail to ensure justice and that his daughter will never return.

He lamented that there are no examples of justice being served in such cases, predicting that the tragedy will dominate the media for at most 15 days before another incident occurs, and the investigation is completely covered up.

The horrific homicide took place inside a third-floor flat of a five-storey building adjacent to Millat Camp in Pallabi Section 11. Ramisa's family resided in the neighbouring flat.

Following an intense seven-hour manhunt launched after the discovery of the crime, police apprehended the prime suspect, Sohel Rana, 30, from Fatullah in Narayanganj.

His wife, Swapna Khatun, 26, was detained by law enforcement directly from the crime scene earlier that morning.

Briefing journalists at the Pallabi Police Station, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Additional Commissioner (Crime and Ops) SN Nazrul Islam stated that initial forensic assumptions indicate the child suffered a sexual assault in the bathroom of the suspects' flat before being killed by Rana.

According to the DMP, Rana planned to completely dispose of the child's body to prevent detection by her family.

To execute the cover-up, the suspect decapitated the child and began cutting one of her hands into pieces to hide the remains.

The grim plot was abruptly foiled at around 10:30am that morning when Ramisa's mother, searching for her daughter before school, noticed one of the child's shoes discarded outside the door of Rana's flat. 

Finding the door locked from the inside, the mother grew suspicious and raised alarms, drawing a crowd of locals.

As the people attempted to force entry into the premises, Rana managed to evade capture by cutting through the iron window grilles and fleeing the scene, leaving his wife behind inside the room where the child's headless torso was discovered shortly after.

Citing findings from initial interrogations, the DMP official noted that the prime accused exhibits perverted and distorted sexual tendencies, with his wife indicating during questioning that he regularly subjected her to physical abuse.

Although Swapna initially claimed she had taken a sleeping pill and was fast asleep during the homicide -- denying immediate knowledge of the bathroom layout -- investigators have collected extensive physical evidence from the scene.

The items have been forwarded to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to conclusively map out the nature of the assault.

Police records further revealed that Rana is also an accused in a separate ongoing case filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act in Natore.