Expatriate’s wife arrested in case over murders of three in Barishal

Police have arrested the wife of an expatriate Bangladeshi in Barishal on charges of killing three members of his family.

Mishrat Jahan, the spouse of Abdur Rab, was arrested on Sunday night, Banaripara Police Station OC Shishir Kumar Paul said.

Rab works in Kuwait. His mother Mariam Begum, 75, brother-in-law Shafiqul Alam, 60, and cousin ‘Yusuf’, 32, were found dead at their house in Saliabakpur village early on Saturday morning.

Seven people, including Rab's wife, were at the house on Friday night but none of them had sensed anything wrong prior to finding the bodies, said police.

Mariam’s college-going granddaughter had slept next to her before her death. But when she woke up at night, she realised that her grandmother was not there.

She subsequently went looking for her and found Mariam’s body in the balcony of another room before alerting the rest of the family to the matter.

The other family members later found the body of Shafiqul in another room while Yusuf's body lay in a pond next to the house.
There was no sign of wound on the bodies, but police presumed they had been murdered.

They cracked the case after arresting construction worker Zakir Hossain, 45, who worked at the house, Barishal Superintendent of Police Saiful Islam said.

After Zakir, another suspect named ‘Jewel’ was arrested.

Both gave statements in court confessing their roles in the killings, SP Saiful said.
Rab’s wife Mishrat was arrested following leads given by the duo in their statements, the police officer said.

The victims were strangled to death sometime in the wee hours of Saturday, he added.