Mother ‘strangles’ daughter on ‘lover’s prompt’

Police in Gopalganj recovered the body of a 3-year-old girl 20 days after she went missing from Sadar Upazila, arresting her mother, who allegedly killed the child at the prompting of her lover.

On Saturday afternoon, officers broke the lock of a room in Gobra Madhya Para and found the child’s body inside a trunk, said Sakhawat Hossen Sentu, additional superintendent of Gopalganj Police.

The victim M Faria was the daughter of expatriate Rubel Sheikh from the area. The arrested mother is Setu Begum.

According to a preliminary inquiry, the mother confessed, leading police to recover the child’s body from the locked room.

After completing the initial medical-legal formalities, the body was sent to Gopalganj General Hospital for postmortem. A case is being prepared, police said.

Faria’s grandmother Parvin Akter said, “Setu married Rubel five years ago. Faria was their only child. Since Rubel lived in Qatar, Setu stayed in Gobra Madhya Para with Faria.

 “Through TikTok, Setu met ‘Miraj’ from Hat Krishnapur, Faridpur. They began an extramarital relationship and eventually decided to build a life together.

 “Before running away, under Miraj’s prompting, Setu strangled her daughter with a scarf. Miraj encouraged her during the act with a knife in hand. They then locked Faria’s body in the trunk and fled together,” she added.

Officer Shakawat added that 19 days after the incident, Setu was left on the Dhaka–Barishal Highway by Miraj.

She later informed her mother of the crime via mobile phone. Acting on this information, police recovered Faria’s body and arrested Setu on Saturday afternoon.