Published : 24 Aug 2026, 07:53 PM
Updated : 08 Sep 2026, 09:35 AM
Two men arrested over the killing of four members of a family in Rangpur, including a retired schoolteacher and his two children, have given confessional statements in court.
Mugdha Das, 23, and Siddhartha Das, 19, were produced before the Rangpur Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court around 5pm on Sunday, according to investigating officer Milon Chatterjee, an inspector at Kotwali Police Station.
Their statements were recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure before Magistrate Md Rafiqul Islam.
The judge then sent the two to jail.
“They confessed to the killings in court. Therefore, there was no need to seek their remand,” Milon said.
Both suspects live near the victims’ home and are related.
Police recovered the bodies of retired Rangpur Zilla School teacher Ganapati Chakraborty, his wife Pritilata Chakraborty, their daughter Agami Chakraborty, a postgraduate student, and their son Ayush Priyam Chakraborty, a fifth-grader, from their home in the Kamal Kachna Machuapara area on Saturday night.
Mugdha and Siddhartha were detained early on Sunday.
Police said Siddhartha, the son of Mugdha’s cousin, works at PK Jewellers, a gold shop in Rangpur, while Mugdha works at a fish shop in City Bazar.
How the Killings Unfolded
Rangpur Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mohammad Abdul Mabud outlined the circumstances of the killings at a press conference on Sunday.
According to police, Mugdha and Siddhartha crossed onto the roof of Ganapati’s home from a neighbouring building on Thursday night and were taking yaba there.
Ganapati went upstairs after hearing a noise and questioned why they were on the roof. The suspects told police that they then strangled him with a towel, according to the commissioner.
“When Ganapati’s wife, Pritilata, heard his screams and came up the stairs, she too was strangled with a towel,” Mabud said.
“When their daughter Agami Chakraborty came forward after hearing her mother’s screams, she was also strangled with a towel and rope.”
Investigating officer Milon said the suspects told investigators that it took them several minutes to kill Agami.
Police say the pair then killed the couple’s son Ayush while he was asleep.
Relatives Raise Alarm After Calls Go Unanswered
Ganapati’s sister-in-law Puja Chakraborty and her husband went to the family’s home on Saturday night after repeated phone calls went unanswered.
They found the house in darkness and received no response despite repeatedly calling out.
Puja eventually reached the roof through a neighbouring property and broke a window lock to look inside. She saw belongings scattered around the house and noticed a foul smell coming from inside.
Police were called and recovered the bodies of the four family members.
Ganapati was 65 and his wife Pritilata was 50. Their daughter Agami was 23 and their son Ayush was 12.
The bodies were handed over to relatives following postmortems on Sunday and cremated at Dakhiganj crematorium that night.
Ganapati’s elder brother, Gopinath Chakraborty, filed a murder case with Kotwali Police Station on Sunday against unidentified suspects.
Police arrested Mugdha Das and Siddhartha Das the same day on suspicion of involvement and later said questioning had yielded important information about the killings.
At Sunday’s press conference, Police Commissioner Mohammad Abdul Mabud said the suspects remained inside the house after the killings.
“After the killings, they went to the bathroom of the house and took showers. They ate dates and cucumbers that had been placed on the dining table. They then took yaba again inside the house,” he said.
Police said the suspects also submerged two smartphones in detergent-mixed water in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence of their presence.
Investigators said they also lit a fire while examining gold jewellery found in the house.
Attempt To Stage The Killings As Robbery
Police said that, in addition to taking the gold jewellery, the suspects scattered various household belongings around the house in an attempt to make the killings appear to have been committed during a robbery.
They reportedly hid the jewellery in an abandoned house behind a temple. Based on information provided by the suspects, police later recovered the jewellery from there.
The police commissioner said, “The victims’ two mobile phones were soaked in water mixed with detergent so that the suspects’ fingerprints would not remain on them.”
Conflicting Accounts About Victims’ Faces
Relatives said the faces of all four victims appeared to have been burned after the killings. A liquid substance was also found near their faces. This initially raised suspicions that some chemical or flammable substance might have been applied to them.
Rangpur CID Superintendent of Police (acting) Sumit Chowdhury said, “A liquid substance was found near their faces. Whether it was a chemical can only be confirmed after the forensic examination report is received.”
However, Dr Babul Kishore Biswas, a forensic medicine specialist at Rangpur Medical College who conducted the postmortems, said, “The faces may have looked like that because the bodies had decomposed. There were no signs of burns caused by acid.”
Information About Tk 1.5mn Provident Fund Withdrawal
Ganapati had withdrawn Tk 1.5 million from his provident fund about a month before the killings, according to Abul Kalam Azad, headmaster of Rangpur Zilla School.
He said Ganapati had withdrawn the money to begin unfinished construction work at his house. However, he was not certain whether the money had been kept in a bank or at the house.
Ganapati’s elder brother and case plaintiff, Gopinath, also had no confirmed information about the whereabouts of the money.
