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Published : 25 Sep 2022, 07:57 PM
Rahima Begum, who was found in Faridpur in mysterious circumstances after remaining missing for three weeks, claimed that she was abducted from her front porch by four to five men, who were named in a kidnapping case.
Earlier on Sunday, police in Khulna said Rahima chose not to answer any question directed at her and kept silent.
The 55-year-old woman in police custody broke her silence after seeing her four daughters around 1 pm on Sunday, Syed Mushfiqur Rahman of the Police Bureau of Investigation in Khulna, said at a news conference.
Rahima reportedly went missing on Aug 27 from Banikpara in Khulna. Since then, her daughters, notably Moriom Mannan, had turned the search into a cause célèbre following her emotional round-the-clock posts on social media. The family also held a news conference on the incident.
SP Syed Mushfiqur, quoting Rahima, said she was threatened by the kidnappers “not to make a big fuss over the dispute of boundaries of a piece of land”.
The alleged abductors, according to Rahima, forced her to sign a blank stamp paper and freed her in an unknown location.
Last Thursday, Moriom posted on Facebook that her mother's body was found in Mymensingh's Phulpur, which garnered a lot of national attention.
The PBI took over the missing person’s case following the identification of the body by Moriom, who has chronicled every detail of the development on social media.
At a news conference on early Sunday, Khulna Metropolitan Police’s Deputy Commissioner Mollah Jahangir Hossain revealed that a team of Khulna’s Daulatpur police, who had been conducting a parallel investigation into the matter, tracked Rahima to a house in Syedpur village of Faridpur’s Boalmari Upazila on Saturday evening. The house was owned by a man, identified as Quddus Mollah.
The police investigation revealed that Quddus used to live as a tenant at Rahima’s home when he was working at Sonali Jute Mill in Khulna years ago.
Rahima has been in police custody at the KMP’s Victim Support Centre since she was found.
The senior KMP official said since Rahima chose not to speak in custody, he could not make any comment about whether she was abducted or voluntarily hiding.
“She chose to remain silent during questioning and not take any food either. We can’t comment on the developments until we hear from her. Since PBI is handling the case now, we will hand her to them as soon as they make the request,” he said.
However, another police official, who did not want to reveal his identity due to the sensitivity of the case, told bdnews24.com that police strongly believe Rahima was hiding voluntarily.
According to Deputy Commissioner Mollah Jahangir, police found no sign of abduction and distress as Rahima was found hanging out with Quddus’s wife and sister-in-law at the household when the team from Daulatpur found the former.
Quddus was absent at the house at the time, but police took Quddus’s son Al Amin, wife and sister-in-law into custody for further questioning.
Jahangir said before Rahima ended up in Quddus’s house in Boalmari on Sept 17, gathered intel report suggests that she stayed in multiple places in Chattogram and Goplaganj’s Muksudpur.
The family filed a general diary at Doulatpur Police Station, claiming that Rahima had been missing since Aug 27 as she did not return home after going out to fetch drinking water.
Aduri Akhtar, another of Rahima’s four daughters, filed an abduction case later.
RAHIMA’S STATEMENT
Quoting Rahima, PBI official Mushfiqur said she was unable to reach her family members after her “release” as she could not recognise anything.
“Rahima Begum claimed that she later remembered about Quddus Mollah’s house in Faridpur and that’s where she went via Gopalganj.”
Rahima told police that Quddus could not contact her family members either as he did not have their contact information.
SP Mushfiqur also revealed that a white shopping bag, containing a veil, hijab, portable mirror, a saree, eye drops, medicine, a set of salwar and kameez, and a small handbag, was recovered from Rahima’s possession.
“Usually you don’t recover these items from a kidnapped person’s possession. We are investigating Rahima Begum's statement,” he said.
PUZZLING INFORMATION
The missing person’s case took a quick turn when Rahima's daughter Moriom identified the body of a woman recovered from Baola village of Mymensingh‘s Phulpur Upazila as her mother's.
After identifying the body, she went to Phulpur Police Station last Friday morning.
Moriom initially sought the police to hand the body over to the family. Later, instead of that, she applied for a DNA test instead.
When asked about the confusion, Jahangir said: “We are yet to confirm if she [Moriom] plotted this or acted out of emotion.”
As Moriom’s posts became a trending topic, a court ordered the PBI to take over the case on Sept 14.
Police arrested six people, including Rahima’s husband Helal Howladar, in connection with the disappearance.
Ansar Uddin Ahmed, the father of two other arrestees, Rafiqul Alam and Nurul Alam, demanded legal actions against Rahima and her daughters as he said the family staged the abduction drama to harass and defame his sons over disputes over the boundaries of a piece of land.
Nazrul Islam, the elder brother of two other arrestees Mohiuddin and Golam Kibria, demanded the same, saying "Rahima Begum's children have misled the police and journalists for almost a month."
