Cumilla schoolgirl rape-murder: CNG driver confesses in court

Mohammad Sumon Mia, 35, a CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver, has given a confessional statement to a court, admitting to raping and murdering a teenage girl whose body was found in a paddy field in Lalmai, Cumilla.

He made the statement on Saturday evening before Mominul Haque, a judge of the Cumilla Senior Judicial Magistrate Court No. 6.

After recording the statement, the court ordered Sumon Mia to be sent to jail at around 8:00 pm. Court Police Inspector Mohammad Sadekur Rahman confirmed the information to Prothom Alo around midnight on Saturday.

He said the accused had been sent to Cumilla Central Jail after giving his confessional statement.

The girl’s body was recovered by police on Thursday morning from beside a ridge in a paddy field in Uttarpara, Bhorajagatpur, in Lalmai upazila. A CNG-run auto-rickshaw was found nearby, with one of the girl’s items of clothing inside.

The deceased girl’s family home is in Jashore. Her family lived in a rented house in Cumilla city because of her father’s job. She was a Class VII student at a school in the city.

The girl’s father filed a murder case against unidentified individuals at Lalmai police station. The following day, Friday, police arrested Sumon Mia in Chattogram.

Police said the iPhone used by the girl was later recovered from bushes beside a pond in the Bakhrabad area, based on information provided by Sumon. Further details were shared at a press conference at the Superintendent of Police’s office on Saturday morning.

At the press conference, police said the girl had boarded a CNG-run auto-rickshaw at Padua Bazar Biswa Road in Sadar South upazila to return home.

The accused, Sumon Mia, allegedly promised to take her home by a shortcut but instead took her to a secluded area, where he raped and murdered her. According to police, the preliminary investigation indicates that Sumon alone was responsible for the rape and murder of the girl.