Man arrested for raping then killing 10-year-old girl in Ctg: PBI

A man has been arrested in connection with raping and killing a 10-year-old girl in Chittagong.

The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) have recovered the child's body eight days after she went missing.

The law enforcers found her body in a pile of garbage at the Pukurpara chicken farm area of the port city's Pahartali police station on Wednesday (29 March).

Earlier on 21 March, a grade-IV student, was on her way to school near Sagarika Road in Chittagong's Pahartali.

Suddenly, she was stopped by Rubel, a local. Rubel told the girl of some adorable kittens which were just nearby. She followed. And then, she went missing.

She was raped, strangled to death and then dumped in garbage at the Pukurpara chicken farm area, PBI Chittagong Metro's Superintendent of Police (SP) Naima Sultana told The Business Standard.

"After her disappearance, PBI started a shadow investigation. Rubel has been arrested in connection with the incident," Naima Sultana added.

On Tuesday (28 March), the child's mother filed a kidnapping case with the Chittagong Women Children Repression and Prevention Tribunal-2.

Judge Sharmin Jahan directed the officer-in-charge of Pahartali police station to take the complaint into consideration. Panel lawyers including Advocate Zia Habib Ahsan and Golam Mawla Murad filed a complaint in the court on behalf of the plaintiff on behalf of the Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation.

Advocate Zia Habib Ahsan confirmed the filing of the complaint and told The Business Standard that the incident was captured in the CCTV video. He also added that when the matter was informed to the police, they didn't take the case and advised the mother to go to court.

On behalf of the child's mother, Advocate Zia Habib said, "Immediately after the incident, the matter was reported to the police station, but the police released the accused Rubel after questioning."

Explaining why the police let Rubel go after bringing him in for questioning, Assistant Commissioner of Chittagong Police (AC- Pahartali Zone) AKM Mohiuddin Salim told TBS on Wednesday (29 March) Rubel did not admit the matter then.

"Later, when the PBI took him into custody and interrogated him, the truth came out, and he was arrested," he said.

"We failed to bring Rubel to justice," Pahartali Police Station OC Mostafizur Rahman told TBS, adding, "It was an unfortunate incident."

"Though we had seen the CCTV footage, we let him go as we did not have enough information to hold him at the time," he added.

The mother claimed she went to the police station immediately after her daughter went missing.

"If the police had been looking for my daughter, this incident would not have happened. I repeatedly told SI Dulal that Rubel is a suspect. But SI Dulal did not take my words seriously," she said.