Bodies of woman and her two grandchildren found in Khulna. One was stuffed in a wardrobe

The bodies do not have any signs of injury on them, but police suspect they may have been killed by asphyxiation

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police have found the bodies of a woman and her two grandchildren – one of whom was stuffed in a wardrobe – from a house in Khulna city.

The bodies were recovered from the home of Shariful Islam near the kitchen market in the city’s Sonadanga on Saturday evening, said Md Rafiqul Islam, chief of Sonadanga Police Station.

The dead have been identified as Baby Begum, 55, and her grandsons Shamim Bepari, 12, and Mustakim Bepari, 4. Fatema Begum Mary is the mother of the two children.

Rafiqul Islam, Fatema’s second husband and the stepfather of her two children, has been absconding since the incident.

Rafiqul, a resident of Maniktala in the Daulatpur Thana area of the city, is a truck driver by trade. Fatema has been taken into custody for questioning.

Fatema and her first husband Masum Bepari divorced nearly four years ago. Since then, she had lived at her mother’s house with her two sons. Recently, she was married to Rafiqul.

Police official Rafiqul said police broke the door to the house when locals reported the incident and initially found the bodies of Baby and Shamim. Mustakim had been considered missing.

Later, Detective Branch (DB) and CID personnel investigated the scene and collected evidence. During the course of their investigation, they found the body of the four-year-old child stuffed in the wardrobe.

Police official Rafiqul said the bodies had no visible signs of injury, but they initially suspect that they were killed by asphyxiation.

The bodies have been sent to the Khulna Medical College morgue for postmortem.

The causes of death will be confirmed once the postmortem report is submitted and the investigation progresses, Rafiqul said.