5-year-old found dead in Bhatara water tank, sister-in-law arrested

The murder allegedly stemmed from family quarrels, police say

Police have recovered the body of a 5-year-old girl from a water tank at her house in the capital’s Bhatara, and arrested her sister-in-law on suspicion of murder.

Police recovered the body of the child, identified only as Arifa, on Wednesday afternoon.

They later detained her brother’s wife Khadija Akter as a suspect.

Bhatara Police Sub-Inspector Maudud Kamal said Khadija had confessed to strangling the child to death and later dumping the body in the water tank.

Quoting family members, the officer said Arifa lived with her family in a rented house in Kuril Mridhabari. Her father, Md Rajib, works as a day labourer.

Arifa’s brother Hasan and his wife Khadija live in the same house.

According to the family, the child would often ask her brother to buy her different kinds of food, which he usually did. This led to repeated arguments between Hasan and his wife.

Following an argument on Wednesday, Khadija allegedly killed the child and threw her body into the water tank.

After Arifa could not be found in the house, family members discovered her body inside the water tank in the afternoon.