Main accused Rana confesses to raping and killing 7-year-old Ramisa
In the same case, his wife, Swapna Khatun, 26, has been sent to jail custody.
Sohel Rana, the main accused in the brutal murder of Ramisa Akter in Dhaka's Pallabi area, gave a confessional statement before a Dhaka court today (20 May), admitting to raping and killing the seven-year-old.
In the same case, his wife, Swapna Khatun, 26, has been sent to jail custody, confirmed Sub-Inspector Abu Kalam Azad of the Prosecution Division.
Rana, 34, was produced before the court earlier today.
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Later, the investigating officer of the case, Pallabi Police Station Sub-Inspector Wahiduzzaman appealed to the court to record Sohel Rana's confessional statement after he agreed to it voluntarily.
In another application, the investigating officer sought to keep Sohel's wife, Swapna, in jail custody.
Following the applications, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Aminul Islam recorded Sohel's statement and then ordered him to be sent to jail.
In another order, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Ashraful Haque ordered that Swapna be sent to jail custody.
According to case documents, the incident took place inside a flat on the third floor of a five-storey building adjacent to Millat Camp in Pallabi Section 11 yesterday. Ramisa's family resided in the neighbouring flat.
Following an intense seven-hour manhunt launched after the crime came to light, 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 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 around 10:30am that morning when Ramisa's mother, searching for her daughter before school, noticed one of the child's shoes outside 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.
