College girl's dead body dumped in Tangail after gang-rape on moving bus

A college girl has been killed after being gang-raped on a moving bus travelling from Sirajganj to Mymensingh.

She was attacked on a Chhowa Paribahan bus on Friday night, the police found out after burying her as an unidentified victim at Tangail's Modhupur.

The investigation over the unclaimed body has led to the arrest of five including the bus's supervisor and driver.

"Among them, three have confessed to raping the woman," said Modhupur Police Station OC Shafikul Islam.

The victim was eventually identified as Zakia Sultana Rupa, a resident of Sirajganj's Tarash, who studied at Ideal Law College in Dhaka.

She had been working in the marketing division of a company. Her area of coverage was Mymensingh Sadar.

Her body was found on the Tangail-Mymensingh Highway at Modhupur's Panchish Mile area around 11pm on Friday.

Modhupur police started a case against unknown assailants after finding visible signs on her body that indicated murder.

An autopsy was conducted on her body which was buried at Tangail Central Graveyard on Saturday evening.

After the recovery of the body made it to news, Rupa's family went to Modhupur Police Station and identified her using photos of her body.

Her brother Hafizur Rahman then started a case against the owners of Chhowa Paribahan.

Rupa was in Bogra to sit the teachers' registration test held countrywide on Friday, Hafizur said,  reports bdnews24.com. She then boarded the bus to Mymensingh with a colleague.

The colleague worked in Dhaka and got off the bus at his stop in Tangail's Elenga. Rupa was supposed to disembark at Mymensingh.

The colleague called her on her phone when she did not reach in time. A man picked it up and claimed that she had left it behind while getting off the bus. He dropped the call and the phone has been unreachable since then.

"Rupa's office called us when she did not show up at work the next day," her brother said. "We opened a general diary with Mymensingh's Kotwali police. Then we saw a piece of news about a body being recovered from Modhupur and we went to the police station there."

Hafizur said he initiated the case against the Chhowa Paribahan officials after identifying her body on Monday.

"The five suspects including the bus driver and supervisor were arrested in a raid in that very night. The victim's mobile phone was with them. The bus too has been seized."

"Three of them have agreed to provide a confessional statement. They said they took turns in raping her when the bus was travelling from Kalihati to Modhupur," said OC Shafikul.

"The victim had asked them to take her belongings and spare her life in return. But they didn’t. The men broke her neck and smashed her skull before dumping her body on the road."

SUSPECTS 'CONFESS'

'Shamim', 'Akram' and 'Jahangir' - three assistants of the bus's driver -- have provided confessional statements in the court of three separate senior judicial magistrates in Tangail on Tuesday evening.

They were sent to prison following the recording of their statements.

The police have taken driver 'Habib' and supervisor 'Safar' on raids to salvage Rupa's Orna or scarf, shoes and purse, said the Modhupur OC.

All five had raped Rupa on the moving bus, he said.