Woman arrested after child’s body found stuffed in plastic drum

Police say the boy died instantly when the suspect slapped him during an interrogation over a missing phone

Police have arrested a woman for allegedly killing a 7-year-old boy and dumping his body in a plastic drum at a rubbish heap in Dhaka’s Gendaria.

The suspect, identified as 45-year-old Maya Begum alias Laboni, was arrested following the recovery of the child’s body on Wednesday, according to a media release sent by Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) on Friday.

The victim Rifat, identified with a single name, had gone missing on Tuesday after going out to play.

His mother Munni Akter had initially filed a general diary with Kadamtali Police Station.

The mystery began to unravel when a plastic drum containing the body of an unidentified child was found in Gendaria on Wednesday night, which Munni later identified as her son.

According to the DMP, the breakthrough came after investigators reviewed CCTV footage and questioned the victim's sister.

The sister recognised the clothing on the body as belonging to Maya’s daughter.

Maya later confessed to the crime, said the DMP.

She told police that she had suspected Rifat’s sister of stealing her mobile phone, leading to a feud between the two families.

On Tuesday, Maya lured Rifat into her house with the promise of food.

When she questioned him about the phone and grew enraged, she slapped the child so hard that his head struck the wooden frame of a bed, killing him instantly, according to police.

Maya hid the body in a rice drum overnight.

She then transported the plastic drum around 10:30am the next day via an autorickshaw to Gendaria’s Loharpool and abandoned it at a rubbish pile, police said.