Aziza Murder: Suspect placed on 2-day remand

A Narsingdi court yesterday granted a two-day remand of Tamuza Begum, a suspect in the brutal murder of Aziza Akhter, a teenage girl who was burnt alive after being suspected of stealing a cell phone.

Police yesterday said during primary investigation, they found that Aziza might have been killed because she came to know about the extra-marital affair of her aunt Beauty Begum, also an accused in the case.

Earlier, sub-inspector Rafiqul Islam of Shibpur Police Station, investigation officer of the case, produced Tamuza before the court seeking a five-day remand.

Confirming the remand, Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police (Shibpur circle) Rezwan Ahmed said police will nab all the suspects in the shortest possible time and unearth the real reason behind the murder.

Syeduzzaman, officer-in-charge of Shibpur Police Station, said Tamuza, an accused in the FIR, during primary investigation admitted Beauty's illicit relationship was the reason behind Aziza's killing.

Tamuza, Beauty's father-in-law's sister, said one Rubel, another accused named in the FIR, was having a relationship with Beauty.

She also admitted that Beauty and her relatives were involved in the killing, said the OC.

Beauty went into hiding after the incident took place in Shibpur upazila of Narsingdi on Friday night.

Family members allege that four men tied Aziza, 14, to a tree about half a kilometer away from her house in Khoinkuti under Joshor union of the upazila, doused her with petrol and set her alight.

With some 96 percent of her body burned, she succumbed to her injuries while in Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Saturday morning, hospital sources said.

Her father Abdus Sattar, a worker at a local poultry farm, filed a murder case on Saturday night accusing seven people, including Beauty, Tamuza and Rubel, who brought her from her home. He also mentioned suspicion of cell phone theft as the reason behind the killing.

Beauty, whose husband is Sattar's brother, lost her cell phone about 10 days before the incident. She suspected that Aziza and one of her sisters took the phone, said Sattar.

Sattar added that at the time of the theft, Aziza was working at their poultry farm, which is some 250 yards from their home. He also outright denied the accusation against his daughter.

Tamuza was arrested from her house on Sunday afternoon.