Barsha, Mahir, Fardin confess to killing JnU student Jobayed
Three separate Metropolitan Magistrates recorded their confessional statements and subsequently sent them to jail.
Three accused, including Barjis Shabnam Barsha and her boyfriend Mahir Rahman, have confessed in court to their involvement in the murder of JnU student Jobayed Hossain.
The other person who confessed is Fardin Ahmed Aylan, a friend of Mahir, according to Public Prosecutor Omar Faruk.
Barsha, Mahir, and Fardin are accused in the case filed over the murder of Jobayed, convening committee member of Chhatra Dal's JnU unit.
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Earlier, this afternoon (21 October), the case investigating officer, Bangshal Police Station Sub-Inspector Md Ashraf Hossain, produced all three accused before the court. As they agreed to confess, the officer applied to the court to record them.
Three separate metropolitan magistrates recorded their confessional statements and subsequently sent them to jail. Mahir's statement was recorded before the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Mehedi Hasan, Barsha's before Magistrate Masum Mia, and Fardin's before Magistrate Jewel Rana, said Public Prosecutor Omar.
In addition, Pritam Chandra Das, another friend of Mahir, testified before the court as a witness in the case.
According to police, Barsha and Mahir, who had known each other for years and had been in a romantic relationship for the past year and a half, planned Jobayed's murder last month.
At a press briefing earlier today, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Additional Commissioner (Crime and Operations) SN Mohammad Nazrul Islam said police gleaned the information from Mahir and Barsha during interrogation.
Jobayed's blood-stained body was recovered from the staircase of a house in Old Dhaka's Armanitola area on 19 October.
According to police, while still involved with Mahir, Barsha began a new relationship with Jobayed. Mahir learned about this last month, after which the pair allegedly began planning Jobayed's murder on 26 September.
Nazrul said, "Barsha developed a romantic relationship with Jobayed while he was tutoring her, though she had already been involved with Mahir. This was essentially a love triangle."
While Bangshal police had previously stated that Barsha and Mahir had been together for nine years, the DMP official said their relationship was one and a half years old.
According to police, Barsha told Mahir that she could not be with him unless Jobayed was "removed" from the scene. The two then conspired to kill Jobayed.
Barsha told Mahir that Jobayed would come for tutoring around 4pm on 19 October. Mahir and Fardin waited in a nearby alley, and when Jobayed arrived, a heated argument broke out. At one point, Mahir stabbed Jobayed in the neck, causing fatal bleeding.
According to DMP Deputy Commissioner (Lalbagh Division) Mallik Ahsan Uddin, after being stabbed, Jobayed ran upstairs seeking help, knocking on several doors, but no one opened.
"On the second floor, he pleaded with Barsha for help, but she did not assist him," he added.
Meanwhile, regarding reports that Mahir's mother had turned her son in, Nazrul said that police had applied tactical pressure on the family, adding that it had not been a voluntary act. "This was part of the police's strategy."
Two days after Jobayed was murdered, his elder brother Enayet Hossain Saikat filed a case at Bangshal Police Station this morning, accusing Barsha, Mahir, and Fardin, confirmed DC Mallik Ahsan.
Jobayed was a student of the statistics department (Session 2019-20) at JnU. For the past year, he had been teaching Barsha physics, chemistry, and biology.
Footage from a nearby CCTV camera showed two young men fleeing the scene around the time of the murder, though their faces are unclear.
After the murder, police took Barsha into custody for questioning. She was escorted from her residence late on Sunday night following extensive interrogation.
Since the murder, JnU students have been demonstrating, demanding justice and exemplary punishment of the accused.
The university has also announced a two-day mourning to honour Jobayed.
According to the case statement, Jobayed tutored students alongside his university studies. On the afternoon of 19 October, around 4:30pm, he went to 15, Roushan Villa, Nur Box Lane, in Ward-31 under Bangshal Police Station, for a tutoring session.
At around 5:48pm, Barsha messaged Jobayed's junior Saikat via Messenger, saying, "Sir has been killed", adding that "someone has murdered him."
Later, around 7pm, JnU student Kamrul Hasan informed Jobayed's brother Enayet over the phone. Enayet, accompanied by his brother-in-law Sharif Mohammad, rushed to the spot and arrived around 8:30pm.
Upon entering the building, they noticed bloodstains on the stairs and walls. On the third floor's eastern stairway, they found Jobayed's body lying face down.
After an autopsy, Jobayed was buried in his family village at Krishnapur in Cumilla on 20 October.
