Suspended gardener gives details of Ghoraghat UNO attack during police interrogation

Rabiul Islam, the suspended gardener, provided a confessional statement and gave details of the events surrounding the attack on Ghoraghat Upazila Nirbahi Officer Wahida Khanam and her father during a police interrogation on Monday.

Rabiul said he was overwhelmed with rage and mistakenly attacked the UNO and her father.

A police official involved in the investigation of the case and the preliminary interrogation said on condition of anonymity that after the arrest of Rabiul Islam and the initial interrogation it is confirmed that the gardener was the only one involved in the incident.

The police official said, "Rabiul Islam's statement and information obtained through the use of technology seem to go hand in hand."

"According to his information, several evidences including the cupboard key and hammer have been recovered," added the police official.

Robiul's statement

During the preliminary interrogation, Rabiul said Tk16,000 was stolen from the UNO's bag four months ago for which he was accused. After the incident, he had to return the money and had to pay Tk50,000 instead of the Tk16,000.

At that time, he requested the UNO not to take departmental or disciplinary action against him. But eventually, he was suspended and a departmental case was filed against him.

Meanwhile, after his suspension, he was being paid Tk9,000 instead of his full salary Tk17,000. 

As a result, he could not repay the Tk50,000 that he borrowed to repay the UNO.

Robiul's anger intensified when, around a month before the incident, he came to the UNO and her father and asked for forgiveness. But he was still charged for the crime. 

As a result, he planned to attack the UNO.

According to his statement, Rabiul left his house in Dhamahar Bhimrul Para in Bijora village of Biral upazila of Dinajpur on September 2 at around 4 pm to go to Ghoraghat.

He got on a bus from Dinajpur Phulbari bus stand and reached Ghoraghat at around 9:30 pm. 

After passing some times in different places in Ghoraghat Bazaar, Rabiul climbed the wall of the UNO's residence and entered into their home at around 1:16 am.

Rabiul also said that upon entering into the UNO's residential grounds he entered the room of night guard Nadim Hossain Palash and found him sleeping.

He searched for the key to unlock the collapsible gate and the main gate of the UNO's residential quarters at the night guard's room. 

Unable to find the keys, Rabiul left the room and tried to enter the residential quarters with a chair. Failing that, he brought the ladder to get in.

He switched off a blub outside the living quarters before he set the ladder to get into the living quarters unsuspected.

Later at around 3:30 am, he finally entered the living quarters through a bathroom ventilator to attack the UNO.

Although he successfully entered the bathroom, he could not enter the bedroom as the bathroom door was locked from outside.

After half an hour of fiddling with the bathroom lock, he opened the bathroom door and entered the UNO's bedroom.

At that time, UNO Waheeda Khanam got up and went to get out of bed as she noticed something suspicious. Rabiul hit her on the head with a hammer from behind several times.

At one point, the UNO fell into her bed.

Upon hearing her screams, Wahida's father, Omar Ali Sheikh, came forward from the next room to save her daughter only to be pushed by Robiul into the door of the room.

Her father got hit by the door pretty hard and could not get up.

At the time, UNO's father asked Robiul several times to ask why his daughter was being attacked and tried to call the guard for help.

Meanwhile, when Rabiul repeatedly asked about the key of the cupboard, Omar Ali Sheikh told him where the key was kept.

Later he tried to open the cupboard with the key in his hand and stole a huge amount of money from there and fled the scene through the ventilator he came in.

The police official said that Robiul gave some of that money to a local gambler. The gambler also gave a confessional statement in the court under section 164.