Household aide Ayesha’s husband confesses to Mohammadpur mother, daughter murders

Household aide Ayesha Akhter’s husband Rabbi has given a “confessional” statement to the court in connection with the murder of a mother and her teenage daughter in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ripon Hossain recorded his statement on Sunday, prosecution officials said.

Sub-Inspector Mizanur Rahman of the prosecution said Rabbi was produced before the court after a three-day remand.

As the accused agreed to make a statement, the investigation officer applied to have it recorded, he said.

The court later recorded the statement and sent Rabbi to jail.

Ayesha, the prime accused, is still on remand, Mizanur added.

The double murder took place on Dec 8, when 48-year-old Laila Afroze and her 15-year-old daughter Nafisa Lawal Binte Aziz were found dead with their throats slit at their home in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur.

Ayesha worked at the house as a domestic aid.

According to police, CCTV footage shows Ayesha entering and leaving the flat alone before and after the killings.

Laila’s husband, Azizul Islam, filed a case with Mohammadpur Police Station on the night of the incident.

Police arrested Ayesha and her husband on Dec 10 from their maternal uncle’s house in Nalchity Upazila of Jhalakathi.

The next day, Ayesha was placed on a six-day remand and Rabbi on a three-day remand.

Azizul, the plaintiff in the case, is a physics teacher at Sunbeams School.

He had been living in the Mohammadpur flat with his wife and their only daughter for about 13 years. Their village home is in Natore.

On the day of the incident, Azizul left home in the morning as usual for school.

He returned earlier than usual because exams were being held.

Around 11am, he found the bodies of his wife and daughter.

Hearing his screams, neighbours gathered and informed police.

Police said CCTV footage shows Ayesha, aged around 20, entering the flat at 7:51am wearing a burqa and leaving at 9:36am wearing a school uniform that belonged to ninth-grader Nafisa.

After the killings, police questioned the building’s doorman, Khalek.

He told investigators that he had sent the young woman to the flat when she came to the house for work four days earlier, adding that she was not known to him.

The court has ordered police to submit the investigation report by Jan 13.