Police constable arrested over murder of woman in Rajshahi

Police have identified the body of a woman found in a drum in Rajshahi and have arrested a police constable in connection with her death.

The police identified the woman as 24-year-old Nonika Rani Roy, a native of Thakurgaon, who worked as a nurse.

Police said she was lured in with promises of marriage before she was raped and murdered. Her body was found in a drum near the cattle market by the Rajshahi City Bypass on Friday.

Authorities came to learn the details of her death after the arrest of 43-year-old police constable Nimaichandra Sarker and three of his accomplices, said Rajshahi PBI Additional Superintendent Abul Kalam Azad.

Sarker had previously been suspended for tricking a college student into filming a nude video.

Roy had completed her training as a nurse from the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital’s Nursing Institute last year and was working at a private hospital. She lived in the city’s Pathanpara area.

Police official Azad said that Sarker was first identified through the use of CCTV footage and information technology.

Sarker had worked at the Rajshahi GRP Police Station and hailed from Pabna’s Ataikula Upazila.

“Nimaichandra Sarker killed the woman after taking her to a house he rented in Rajshahi’s Terkhadia area,” said police official Azad. Sarker rented the house on Apr 6. He lived there alone. His wife is also a police constable in Bogura.

“He has confessed to the murder. He told police he had been romantically involved with the victim for six to seven years and had raped her after making promises of marriage.”

Recently, Roy had been pushing him to marry her. Sarker had taken her to his house, killed her and then but the body in the drum, which was then transported by a microbus and thrown into a pond.

A police official said Sarker had worked at the Rajshahi GRP Police Station for seven years. While working at the Detective Branch of the Metropolitan Police, he tricked a college student into filming a nude video. The video began to spread and he was suspended.

He joined the railway police after his suspension ended.

The three others arrested alongside Sarker were Kabir Ahmed, 30, Sumon Ali, 34, and microbus driver Abdur Rahman, 25.