Student devised plot with boyfriend to murder JnU’s Jobayed a month ago, police say

Police say the Jagannath University Chhatra Dal leader was killed in a premeditated attack allegedly orchestrated by one of his students and her boyfriend

The killing of Jagannath University’s Chhatra Dal leader Md Jobayed Hossen was planned more than a month ago, according to police.

Investigators say the plot was devised jointly by a female student Jobayed used to tutor and her boyfriend.

Bangshal Police Station chief Rafiqul Islam revealed the latest findings in the murder investigation at a media briefing on Tuesday.

He said that on the day of the killing, the girl’s boyfriend was accompanied by two of his friends.

“They bought two new switchblade knives for the murder. The girl’s boyfriend attacked Jobayed repeatedly with one of them, acting on her instructions,” Rafiqul said.

For about a year, Jobayed had been tutoring the student in physics, chemistry, and biology at her home in Old Dhaka’s Armanitola area. Around 4:45pm on Sunday, Jobayed was stabbed under the building where his student lived. Despite being grievously injured, he managed to climb up to the third floor before collapsing and dying there.

Earlier, police had said that the student had feelings for Jobayed, which allegedly provoked her boyfriend -- a college student -- to kill Jobayed out of jealousy.

Now, investigators say the murder was "premeditated".

“It was a planned killing by the student and her boyfriend,” OC Rafiqul Islam said.

“The college student had been in a relationship with the girl for nine years. But recently, she grew close to Jobayed and broke up with her boyfriend, telling him she liked Jobayed. Later, she told him she no longer liked Jobayed either. That’s when the two of them began planning the murder together.”

Initially, the student denied any involvement in the murder, Rafiqul said.

“But when we confronted her face-to-face with her boyfriend, she confessed. Since the 25th of September, they had been making a plan to take Jobayed out of the picture,” the police officer added.

So far, police have detained four people, including the girl, in connection with the murder.

The boyfriend is a first-year higher secondary student at Sheikh Borhanuddin College in Old Dhaka, while the girl is a second-year student at Dhaka Mohanagar Mohila College. The two had grown up in the same neighbourhood since childhood.

Jobayed was a student of statistics at Jagannath University from the 2019-20 academic session and a member of the convening committee of the university’s Chhatra Dal unit. He also served as president of the Cumilla District Student Welfare Association.

On Sunday, blood was found on the stairs from the ground floor up to the third floor of the building, where his body lay face down.

News of his death quickly spread, and students of Jagannath University, along with Chhatra Dal leaders and activists, gathered at the scene, demanding justice.

Police interrogated Jobayed's student and her family members at their home for nearly five hours, before taking her into custody at around 11pm.

Later that night, protesters blocked the main road in Tantibazar around 10:45pm, demanding justice.

Meanwhile, the name and photo of the college student suspected in the killing began circulating on social media on Sunday. On Monday, the suspect’s mother reportedly handed him over to police, relatives said.