Bodies of couple found in locked room, dead foetus found nearby
Police have recovered the bodies of a husband and wife, along with a dead foetus, from a locked room in a building in Ashulia, Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka.
Police initially suspect that the couple may have been murdered.
The bodies were recovered around 2:30 am on Friday from a room on the first floor of a four-storey building in the Madhya Jamgora area.
The deceased are identified as Nazma Akter, 33, of Boro Magura Pakpara, and her husband, Alamgir Hossain, 42, from the Palashbari area in Dinajpur’s Nawabganj upazila.
According to police and several local residents, Alamgir and Nazma rented the room on 9 August. The room had been locked for the past three days. On Friday, tenants in nearby rooms noticed a foul smell coming from the room and informed the building owner.
The owner initially thought a cat had died and was decomposing, causing the smell. But as the odour became stronger, the owner and tenants broke open the lock and entered the room on Friday night. They found Nazma and Alamgir’s bodies lying on the bed. A dead foetus was also found in the room. They then informed the police.
Both of us sisters work at the same factory in Jamgora. She did not go to work today [Saturday] either. I thought that, as my sister was pregnant, she might have had some problems and therefore did not go to work.Shapla Begum, deceased Nazma's sister
Several local tenants said Nazma was pregnant when the couple rented the room and that she worked at a local garment factory. Alamgir worked as a hawker.
Nazma’s sister, Shapla Begum, told Prothom Alo that she had last seen her sister on Thursday afternoon. “Both of us sisters work at the same factory in Jamgora. She did not go to work today [Saturday] either. I thought that, as my sister was pregnant, she might have had some problems and therefore did not go to work,” she said.
Shapla alleged that her sister and brother-in-law had been strangled to death. She said that because her sister was pregnant, the foetus had come out of her womb.
Ashulia police station officer-in-charge Mohammad Tariqul Islam said the woman had a miscarriage before or after the murder, and the foetus, estimated to be around five months old, had come out. Based on various evidence at the scene and the circumstances, police initially suspect that the couple may have been murdered.