3 remanded for five days over headteacher’s death in mugging near parliament

A Dhaka court today (31 August) sent three people, including the prime accused, to five days’ remand in a case filed over the death of a headteacher who fell from a rickshaw and died after muggers allegedly pulled her handbag near parliament in Dhaka.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Siddiq Azad passed the order after police sought 10 days’ remand for the accused.

The accused are Md Poni, alias Para Poni and Poni Gazi, Cedric Julian, 24, and Md Rakib Hossain, 24.

The court passed the order after Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station Sub-Inspector Shahin, investigation officer in the case, produced the accused before the court and sought their remand for questioning.

In the remand petition, police said the accused needed to be interrogated to uncover the circumstances of the incident, identify the names and addresses of unidentified suspects and determine and arrest those allegedly behind the crime.

Defence lawyers, including Amir Uddin Amir, sought cancellation of the remand and bail for the accused. The prosecution opposed the applications.

After hearing both sides, the court granted five days’ remand for each accused, said Rafiqul Islam, a sub-inspector of the Dhaka Metropolitan Prosecution Division.

According to the case statement, the deceased, Ronjila Parvin, 56, was the headteacher of Bagbari Government Primary School in Gabtali upazila of Bogura.

On 29 August, she and her husband, Md Abdul Matin, were travelling by autorickshaw to see an eye specialist.

At around 5:55am, when they were passing the road near Gate 12 of the National Parliament complex on Manik Mia Avenue, snatchers riding a motorcycle grabbed and forcefully pulled her handbag.

The force of the tug caused Parvin to fall from the moving autorickshaw onto the road, where she sustained severe head injuries, according to the complaint.

She was first taken to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital in critical condition and was later being taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital when doctors declared her dead, the case statement says.

Her husband filed the case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station.

Following the filing of the case, Rapid Action Battalion-2 arrested the three accused in separate raids in different parts of the capital on 30 August.

RAB also seized a smartphone and cash allegedly snatched during the incident, along with a Yamaha R15 motorcycle allegedly used in the crime, according to police.