NCP leader Jannatara’s death: what do police and relatives say

Various discussions are circulating surrounding the recovery of the body of Jannatara Rumi, a leader of the National Citizen Party (NCP), from a women’s hostel in Jigatala in the capital.

While police suspect the incident to be a case of suicide, an NCP leader has described it as “murder”.

As justification, the NCP leader said that Jannatara had been facing online harassment and threats after images circulated recently showing her assaulting a middle-aged woman with sticks at Dhanmondi 32.

Thirty-year-old Jannatara would at a private organisation. She would live alone in a room on the fifth floor of the hostel in Jigatala.

Police went to the hostel today, Thursday morning after receiving the news and recovered her body from there, said Hazaribagh police station’s officer-in-charge (OC) Md Hafizur Rahman.

He told Prothom Alo that the hostel’s maid knocked repeatedly on Jannatara’s door in the morning but received no response, and then pushed the door.

At that point, the latch of the hardboard door came loose showing Jannatara hanging from the ceiling fan with a scarf wrapped around her neck. The hostel then reported the incident to the police, who arrived later and recovered her hanging body, he added.

The OC said that some antidepressant tablets were found on the table in Jannatara’s room. Preliminary investigation suggests that Jannatara had been married twice and divorced both times. Given ongoing family discord, it appears that she took her own life due to depression.

Jannatara’s ancestral home is in Patnitala of Nazipur municipality in Naogaon district. Her father is a farmer. She was the second among one brother and two sisters. Her cousin Mehedi Hasan rushed to Dhaka upon hearing the news of her death.

Speaking to Prothom Alo in front of the Dhaka Medical College morgue on Thursday afternoon, Mehedi Hasan said that Jannatara had a four-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter from her two marriages, and that the children live with their respective fathers.

Mehedi Hasan added that Jannatara had been suffering from depression since her second divorce, and it appeared that she had taken her life due to that depression. He also said that Jannatara had completed nursing degree from Gonoshasthaya Medical College in Savar and maintained contact with her family in her village home.

Jannatara was a joint coordinator for the Dhanmondi unit of the NCP. Several NCP leaders, including central joint convener Samanta Sharmin, went to the Dhaka Medical College morgue in the afternoon to see her for the last time.

Speaking to journalists there, Samantha Sharmin said, “Rumi’s hanging body reminds us of how big an enemy we have been fighting against. Rumi was repeatedly threatened from Awami League’s page, telling her she was on a hit list.”

Samantha said that despite such explicit comments, no action was taken against those accounts, although it was the responsibility of the state to do so. The state, she added, must bear responsibility for Rumi’s death.

After the recovery of Jannatara’s body, central joint member secretary of NCP Tareq Reza made a post on his verified Facebook page around 11:30 am. He stated that last month, on the day of the verdict against ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, Jannatara had handed over to police a person affiliated with the Awami League, whose political activities have been banned, after that person allegedly tried to dig up Zia’s grave at Dhanmondi 32.

Since then, Tarek Reza wrote in his post, Jannatara had been subjected to cyber bullying and threats of murder and rape by the Awami League. He further wrote that, Jannatara took her own life at night because of all this.

In the same Facebook post, Tarek Reza added, “We are not ready to see this as a suicide. This is murder. Those who have destroyed my sister’s life will not be allowed to live in peace.”

In the afternoon, a post-mortem inquest report on Jannatara’s body was prepared at the Dhaka Medical College morgue by Kamruzzaman, sub-inspector of Dhanmondi police station. The report stated that there were marks around Jannatara’s neck, but no signs of injury were found on her head, forehead, cheeks, or anywhere else on her body.

In the evening, her relatives took Jannatara’s body to Naogaon.