Plot to kill Apratim began seven days earlier, contact made on TikTok

They became acquainted through taking photographs and making TikTok videos. Then they became tempted by an iPhone. The planning began about a week before the incident.

Later, 13-year-old Ishayat Shahriar Apratim was taken to a secluded area in the Lalmai hills on the pretext of taking photographs. There, his iPhone was taken from him first.

An argument broke out when he asked for the phone back. At one point, he was beaten to death with repeated blows from the handle of a spade lying nearby.

These details have emerged in the confessional statements given to a court by three accused in the Cumilla murder case involving Apratim. The three statements largely corroborate one another on the planning, taking Apratim to the hills, taking possession of his iPhone and assaulting him.

There are, however, some differences in their accounts of the exact sequence of events during the killing.

Apratim, a Class VII student at Cumilla Border Guard Public School, went missing after leaving home on Friday, 18 September. His body was recovered the following day from a secluded jungle in the Lalmai hills in Sananda village of Cumilla Sadar South Upazila.

Following the incident, Saiful Islam alias Tuhin, 19, and two minors were arrested. On the night of 20 September, all three gave confessional statements under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure before the Senior Judicial Magistrate’s Court in Cumilla.

According to sources familiar with the case, Tuhin gave the most detailed account of the planning among the three statements. According to him, he had known Apratim for five or six months. Apratim would go out with them on Siam’s motorcycle to take photographs and make TikTok videos.

In his statement, Tuhin said that the two of them became tempted by Apratim’s iPhone. By “the two”, he was referring to himself and the teenager who worked at Apratim’s father’s shop.

Tuhin said that the two met near the main gate of Cumilla University on the evening of the previous Friday. It was there that they planned to take the iPhone away and kill Apratim.

The teenager who worked at Apratim’s father’s shop also referred to that meeting the previous Friday in his statement. However, he put the blame for the plan on Tuhin. According to him, “Tuhin planned to kill Apratim for the iPhone.”

In the third statement, the other teenager said that on the afternoon of the day of the incident, his friend told him about the plan: Apratim would be killed for his iPhone with Tuhin’s help.

Thus, the three statements have one major point in common: the decision to kill Apratim was not made spontaneously. All three accounts indicate that the killing had been planned beforehand, with the iPhone as the motive.

According to Tuhin’s statement, he met Apratim in front of a polytechnic institute in Mainamati on the evening of 17 September, the day before the killing. Apratim gave him the address of his TikTok account.

That night, Tuhin sent Apratim a message on TikTok. Apratim later gave him a mobile phone number, and they spoke on that number. They decided to meet after Friday prayers the following day.

According to Tuhin’s account, Apratim also asked the teenager who worked at his father’s shop to come at the same time. They were supposed to take photographs. The relationship built around “taking photographs” ultimately provided an opportunity to take Apratim to the secluded hills, according to the accounts given in the three statements.

Investigators into the killing of 13-year-old Ishayat Shahriar Apratim have described his association and relationships with young men five to 10 years older than him as an “inappropriate friendship”.

Tuhin said that he met Apratim in front of the main gate of Cumilla University on the afternoon of 18 September. He then persuaded Apratim to go towards Sananda West Para. In his statement, Tuhin described the area as secluded and said that the hill belonged to his uncle, Shah Alam.

Meanwhile, the teenager who worked at Apratim’s father’s shop said that he met Apratim in the Board Market area of Kotbari after 2:00 pm. Later, shortly before evening, he went to the hills with another teenage friend. Before going there, he told his friend about the plan.

The third teenager gave a similar account. He said he met the other teenager in front of a school at around 3:40 pm. It was there that he learned about the plan to kill Apratim. They then went to the hills after 4:00 pm, where they saw Apratim and Tuhin sitting together.

The three statements are also broadly consistent in saying that after the four met, they spent some time talking and hanging out.

The teenager who worked at the shop said in his statement that he asked Apratim for his phone, and Apratim handed it to him. After using it for some time, he gave the phone to Tuhin.

Tuhin’s statement gives a similar account. The teenager took the iPhone from Apratim and used it for some time before handing it to Tuhin instead of returning it to Apratim.

An argument then broke out between Apratim and Tuhin over the phone. Police had also previously said that when Apratim tried to take back the iPhone, Tuhin prevented him from doing so, after which the assault took place.

The three accounts converge on an important point in what happened next: Tuhin was the first to assault Apratim. Tuhin initially slapped Apratim. He then picked up the handle of a spade lying nearby and struck Apratim on the head. He then told the other two to hit him.

The teenager who worked at the shop also said that after an argument broke out between Tuhin and Apratim, Tuhin first struck Apratim on the head with the handle of the spade lying nearby. The third teenager likewise said that Tuhin was the first to strike Apratim with the handle.

Another important point on which the three statements agree concerns the motive for the killing. Tuhin said that they had become tempted by Apratim’s iPhone.

The second teenager was more explicit in his statement, saying, “Our plan was that Tuhin would sell the phone and give me a share of the money. That is why we did this.”

The third teenager gave a similar account. According to him, he had been told that the iPhone would be sold and that he would receive a share of the money.

There are some differences in the accounts of where each person went after Apratim’s death. Tuhin said that after Apratim died, the other two left in one direction while he went in another direction and returned home.

The second statement says that after Apratim died, the two teenagers left the scene together, while Tuhin remained standing there. The third teenager also said that he and his friend left together while Tuhin went in another direction.

However, all three statements indicate that Apratim’s iPhone ultimately remained with Tuhin.

Another important detail in Tuhin’s statement concerns his friend, Md Siam, 19. According to Tuhin, after the killing he returned home, called Siam and asked him to come over, and “told him everything”. His statement also indicates that Siam already knew about the plan to kill Apratim.

The statements of the other two accused, however, contain no mention of Siam being involved in the planning before the killing. Police later showed Siam as a suspect and sent him to jail through a court order.

Police said he had not directly participated in the killing but had concealed information about the incident after learning about it. Police sources said that on the night of the killing, Tuhin met Siam and told him in detail what had happened.

The statements also describe their behaviour the day after the incident. Tuhin said that the morning after the killing, Apratim’s maternal uncle called him looking for Apratim. He then went to Kotbari with Siam to search for him.

The teenager who worked at Apratim’s father’s shop said that the following day he searched for Apratim with one of the employees at Apratim’s father’s shop. Later, after hearing that Apratim’s body had been found, he also went to the scene.

The other teenager said that after the body was recovered, he and his friend posted messages on Facebook that evening expressing their grief over Apratim’s death.

Meanwhile, police analysed CCTV footage along with other information and identified Tuhin. After questioning him, they obtained information about the others, police said.

After Apratim’s body was recovered, his father, KM Firoz Shahriar, filed a murder case against unidentified individuals. The accused were subsequently arrested based on information obtained during the investigation.

After the three accused gave confessional statements to the court on 20 September, police said their statements would be verified against other evidence.

The investigation is also examining whether anyone else was involved in the killing.

Taken together, the three statements show broad agreement on several key points: their acquaintance with Apratim, their desire to obtain his iPhone, the advance planning, taking him to a secluded area in the hills, taking possession of the phone and the subsequent assault.

However, questions about the precise role played by each accused in the killing will ultimately be determined through the investigation and judicial process.

Apratim’s family, classmates and people in Cumilla are now awaiting that process. The family’s foremost expectation is that the full truth about what happened on the afternoon when Apratim left home to take photographs will be uncovered and that those responsible will receive due punishment.