In a stunning new revelation, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) student Fardin Noor Parash is now said to have ended his own life by jumping off Sultana Kamal Bridge in the city.
Commander Khandaker Al Moin, legal and media wing director of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), disclosed this at a press conference at its headquarters more than five weeks after Fardin’s body was recovered from the Shitalakshya river on 7 November.
Despite not being the investigation agency appointed by a court in the case, RAB has from the start taken more than a token interest in the case, never calling off its ‘shadow investigation’. The law enforcement agency has in the process changed its story several times.
The one revealed today, Wednesday, is in a completely new direction from anything it has said before.
According to the latest RAB narrative, around 9.45 pm on 4 November - the day he was last with family and friends - Fardin dropped his friend Amatullah Bushra, a 3rd-year student of East West University, who still languishes in jail without any charges against her, and no evidence or motive in sight for her to be involved in the death, in Rampura.
After that, he apparently went to a bridge in Keraniganj and then to Johnson Road, Gulistan and Jatrabari respectively till 2 am.
Then he went to Sultana Kamal Bridge around 2:34 am. He was alone on the bridge till 2:37 am, said the RAB spokesman.
Police recovered Fardin’s body from the Shitalakshya river, behind a cotton mill at Siddhirganj, on 7 November, three days after he went missing.
Fardin jumped off the bridge after roaming with his friend here and there in the capital, he said, adding that they detected these after scrutinising his whereabouts.
The RAB officer said they tightened intelligence surveillance to unveil the reason behind the death and used technology to detect his whereabouts before committing the suicide.
He said they submitted all relevant documents including CCTV footage and digital footprints to the investigation officer of the case Wednesday.
The victim’s father filed a murder case against some unidentified people at Rampur police station on 9 November.
On the following day, police arrested Bushra from her residence in connection with the death.
Earlier, on Wednesday, additional commissioner (Detective Branch) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Mohammad Harun Or Rashid at a press conference at the DB office in the capital said the BUET student died by suicide.
The DB chief said they scrutinised the footage regarding Fardin’s movement before his death. “Fardin didn’t go to Chonpara.”
Sheikh Farhad, a physician at Narayanganj General Hospital where the autopsy was done, said there were several injury marks on Fardin’s head and body.
Kazi Nuruddin Rana, Fardin’s father, filed a case in connection with his son’s killing at Rampura police station on the same day and the case was later transferred to Detective Branch (DB) Police.