Extra-marital affiar costs Saudi expat's life

A woman and her teenage daughter were arrested by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) for their involvement in the brutal murder of Saudi Arabia expatriate, whose body was chopped into eight pieces and dumped in the capital's Mugda area.

The deceased was identified as Mokarram Mia, a resident of Brahmanbaria.

The arrestees, Helena Begum and her daughter, were apprehended from the Manda area late Sunday night. Police are currently tracking down another prime suspect, Taslima Akhter, alias Hasna, who remains at large.

Speaking at a press conference at RAB-3 headquarters at Shahjahanpur on Monday afternoon, Battalion Second-in-Command Saidur Rahman detailed the background of the crime. Mokarram had developed a romantic relationship over social media with Taslima, the wife of a fellow expatriate from his village. Over time, Mokarram had sent Taslima more than Tk 5 lakh from abroad.

Upon returning to Bangladesh from Saudi Arabia on May 13, Mokarram went straight to Mugda to meet Taslima at the rented apartment of her friend, Helena.

An alteration broke out that night when Taslima refused Mokarram's proposal of marriage. In response, Mokarram demanded his money back and threatened to leak intimate photos and videos of Taslima online. The suspects also alleged that Mokarram attempted inappropriate behavior with Helena's teenage daughter later that night. Angered by his actions, Taslima and Helena plotted to kill him.

According to the investigation, the suspects laced Mokarram's drinking water with sleeping pills during breakfast the next morning. When he grew drowsy, Helena tried to suffocate him with a pillow. As Mokarram resisted, a violent struggle ensued. Taslima attempted to strike him with a hammer and Helena hacked him in the neck with a kitchen cleaver. Taslima then inflicted further blows, while the teenage daughter struck him on the head with a hammer, ensuring his death.

The killers then moved the body to the bathroom and dismembered the corpse into eight pieces before packing them into polythene bags and sacks. Around 12 hours later, on Thursday night, they dumped seven pieces of the body into a garbage pile beneath the building, while disposing of the severed head nearly a kilometer away.

The crime came to light on Saturday afternoon when locals noticed a foul odor and dialed the national emergency hotline, 999.

Police recovered the body parts and identified Mokarram through fingerprint analysis using the national NID database.

Following Helena’s confession during interrogation, police recovered the missing head. Operations are underway to apprehend Taslima, the official concluded.