Published : 25 Aug 2026, 02:34 AM
Updated : 08 Sep 2026, 09:35 AM
The families of two men arrested over the killing of a retired schoolteacher and three members of his family in Rangpur have questioned their alleged involvement and called for a proper investigation.
They say they find it difficult to believe that Mugdha Das, 23, and Siddhartha Das, 19, could have carried out the killings.
Siddhartha’s father Kanu Das asked why his son would have remained at home if he had been involved in such a crime.
He said he himself woke his son from sleep and handed him over to police.
Mugdha’s mother Sena Das raised a similar question about how two young men could have killed four people.
Police recovered the bodies of former Rangpur Zilla School teacher Ganapati Chakraborty, his wife Pritilata Chakraborty, their Class Five student son Priyam Chakraborty and postgraduate student daughter Agami Chakraborty from a house in the city’s Machhuapara on Saturday night.
Ganapati was 65 and his wife Pritilata was 50. Their daughter Agami was 23 and their son Ayush was 12.
Police announced early on Sunday that they had detained Mugdha and Siddhartha from the same area.
Siddhartha works at PK Jewellers in Rangpur, while Mugdha works at a fish shop in City Bazar.
Police say both gave confessional statements before a court under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure on Sunday.
After the arrests, Rangpur Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mohammad Abdul Mabud told reporters that the two had been detained during an operation early on Sunday.
He said one of them fled after sensing the presence of law enforcers and hid in a mulberry plantation belonging to the nearby Sericulture Development Board. Police later detained him near Dakhiganj crematorium beside the plantation.
Citing preliminary questioning of the suspects, law enforcers also said they had found evidence suggesting the killers consumed yaba inside the building after the murders.
‘Would He Have Stayed At Home?’
Siddhartha’s father Kanu Das told reporters at his home on Monday that members of the family were present in the area when the bodies were recovered that night.
He said police arrived late at night and asked who lived in the surrounding houses.
According to Kanu Das, officers later asked about Mugdha and told them to bring him in. He said police then went to the house where the young men had been sleeping and woke them.
Kanu said he later returned home and learned about an hour afterwards that his son had been arrested.
He was then told that his son had allegedly committed the killings after taking yaba.
“My son was not a drug addict. I had never seen anything like that,” Kanu said.
“If for some reason he did take drugs, what can I say? Can anyone always know when somebody uses drugs? Every parent wants their child to be well.”
He said his son had no history of theft or similar offences. “He was a cheerful boy. He used to play with younger children. You can ask people in the neighbourhood.”
Kanu said the two young men had grown up together and often stayed at each other’s homes.
“If I had known my son had killed someone, I would have been terrified from the beginning,” he said. “How could I have stayed at home and carried on normally?”
‘How Could Two Boys Kill Four People?’
Mugdha’s mother Sena Das said her son regularly went to work and returned home as usual.
“My son was not that bad,” she said. “As his mother, I would understand something about him. But I cannot understand how all this happened.”
Asked whether she believed her son could have committed the murders, Sena called for investigators to determine whether anyone else was involved.
“I don’t think these two boys were capable of it. Or was there someone else behind them? That should be properly investigated,” she said.
“If my son did this, he should receive the punishment he deserves. But if he is not guilty, he should be released.
“This was not the killing of one or two people, but four. How could two boys do it? That is the question.”
