Cop kills schoolboy after abduction

Police recovered the decomposed body of a schoolboy from a police constable’s house in Sylhet city on Saturday night, three days after he was kidnapped for ransom.
The deceased, Abu Sayeed, 9, son of Matin Miah, was a class IV student of Roynagar government primary school.
He was abducted on his way home on Wednesday.
Biman Bandar police constable Ebadul Rahman, Sylhet district Olema League general secretary Abdur Rakib and Geda Miah, who claimed himself to be a Rapid Action Battalion informant, were arrested on charge of killing the boy after abduction, the Kotwali police said.
Ebadur gave a confessional statement before the court of metropolitan magistrate Shahedul Karim on Sunday afternoon.
Quoting Ebadur, court inspector Mafizul Islam told New Age that the accused had admitted to the murder after abduction.
Ebadur told the court that he in association with the two other arrested persons had kidnapped Sayeed on Wednesday when the boy was returning home from school, the inspector said.
Ebadul admitted that they had kidnapped Sayeed to extract ransom from his family, but murdered him in a bid to hide their crime after the victim’s family informed the police about the matter.
The police constable said he had once stayed with the victim’s family who sublet part of their house to him.
The family from Khalisa village under Jagannathpur upazila in Sunamganj, has been living in a rented house at 74 Basundhara in Darziband neighbourhood at Roynagar in the city for last few year, the police said.
Syeed’s uncle Zaynal Abedin alleged that the kidnappers had called him on mobile phone and demanded a ransom of Tk 5 lakh after kidnapping the boy.
He said the family had recorded a general diary with the Kotwali police on Wednesday afternoon.
‘The kidnappers at one point offered to reduce the ransom money to Tk 2 lakh after we expressed our inability to pay Tk 5 lakh,’ Zaynal said adding that the kidnappers later started changing the location where the money was to be paid for Sayeed’s release.
Zainal said that on Wednesday night, the kidnappers had called him again and held him responsible for informing the police and RAB about the matter. They threatened to kill Sayeed before switching off the mobile phone, he added.
Kotwali police second officer Fayez Ahmad, who was investigating the incident, said that during the investigation they became certain that the mobile phone number, from which calls were made to the victim’s family, had been used by Biman Bandar police constable Ebadur.
‘Ebadul was asked to come to the Kotwali police station on Saturday night and later two of his accomplices were arrested in the city. The victim’s body was also recovered from Ebadur’s residence following his statement,’ the police said.
The police recovered the decomposed body of Sayeed packed in six polythene bags and wrapped in a jute sack from an attic on the roof of the single-storey rented house of Ebadur at Zerzeripara in the city, around 10:30pm on Saturday.
Criminal Investigation Department inspector Shamimur Rahman said Sayeed was strangled with a rope. ‘There was a rope tied round his neck,’ he added.
When contacted, Kotwali police officer-in-charge Asaduzzaman confirmed that Ebadur had given confessional statement to the magistrate court.
He said the victim’s father had filed a case with the police in this connection on Sunday morning and the victim’s body was handed over to the family after postmortem examination at the Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital.
Gloom descended on Sylhet city as the news spread. Shakil Ahmad, father of a student of Roynagar government primary school, said the students would form a human chain in front of the school on Monday to mourn Sayeed and demand exemplary punishment of the killers.