4 arrested over disappearance of three college girls in Dhaka

Police on Sunday arrested four people in a case filed over the disappearance of three female college students from Pallabi area of Mirpur, Dhaka.

A Dhaka court sent one of them to police remand for two days and the other three to jail.

Pallabi police station OC Parvez Islam identified the four suspects as Md Tariqullah, 19, Md Rakibullah, 20, Zinnia alias Tiktok Zinnia Rose, 18, and Sharfuddin Ahmed Ayon, 18.

Of them, Rakibullah was placed on remand by Metropolitan Magistrate Begum Mahmuda Akter.

Based on the defence’s plea that the matter of the other three’s remand should go to juvenile court as they are underage, the magistrate decided to hold off their remand hearing after their ages are determined.

According to police, the three girls -- aged between 16 and 18 -- left their homes in college uniforms on Thursday with large amounts of money, gold jewellery and their educational and birth certificates. They have since been missing.

Advocate Qazi Rowshan Dil Afroj, the elder sister of one of the girls, filed the case on Saturday with Pallabi police against the four accused and four more unidentified persons.

The families alleged that the trio was abducted after being lured with offers to travel abroad. They also claimed Tariqullah, Rakibullah, Zinnia and Ayon were involved in human trafficking.

Case details

According to the case document, the teenagers and the accused were acquainted with each other through study purposes. Tariqullah and Zinnia also used to visit the plaintiff’s sister at their home.

On the morning of September 30, the families of the three girls figured out that the trio was missing. The plaintiff also checked the houses of the four accused and failed to trace them as well.

Later that night, the plaintiff’s family found out that her sister had left home after taking Tk600,000 in cash and gold jewellery worth Tk80,000 from the family almirah as well as her educational and birth certificates.

Of the other two girls, one took off with Tk75,000 from her house and the other took off with 2.5 bhoris of gold jewellery from her house. Both of them also took their certificates.

During a frantic search for the girls, the families learned from witnesses that the trio had gotten into a white microbus from Kaillar Mor area on Paris Road at Mirpur 10, which falls under the jurisdiction of Pallabi police station, around 9am on September 30.

The plaintiff alleged that the four accused and their unidentified associates were involved in the premeditated abduction of the girls that day, after luring them with false promises.