Md. Lavlu Sheikh, Lalmonirhat

Second wife was killed to please first wife by her husband in Lalmonirhat.

It is learnt that the husband left the house with his wife in his van, saying that he was going for a walk.

On the way, he gave her anaesthetic along with betel leaves, made her unconscious, took her to a secluded place and coldly severed her head from her body.

Later, the husband buried the severed head in a tobacco field on the Bangladesh-India border in Durgapur area of Aditmari upazila.

This information was given at a press conference at the Police Superintendent's Conference Eoom on Monday afternoon by Lalmonirhat District Police Superintendent Md. Tariqul Islam.

He said, on receiving the news, the police recovered the headless body of an unidentified woman from a corn field in Fulgach village of Mogalhat union of Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila on Wednesday afternoon, March 5. Later, the Rangpur CID police confirmed from the fingerprints that the body was that of Hasina Begum (38), the second wife of Ashraful (50) of Durgapur Dighaltari village in Aditmari upazila of Lalmonirhat district. Since the incident, the husband of the deceased Hasina Begum, Ashraful Islam, and his first wife Meherunnesa (45) had been absconding.

On the afternoon of Friday, Lalmonirhat Sadar Police Station arrested the first wife Meherunnesa and took her into police custody for integration . Later, on Saturday, during an interrogation of Meherunnesa, her sister-in-law gave information that Hasina Begum's severed head was buried. Based on that information, the police recovered Hasina's severed head buried in a tobacco field on the Bangladesh-India border in Durgapur area of Aditmari upazila of the district and sent it to the hospital morgue.

Her husband Ashraful Islam is a van driver by profession. He is a resident of Durgapur Dighaltari village in Aditmari upazila of the district and the son of Nabab Ali of Char Kuthirpar village in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila. The deceased Hasina is the second wife of Begum Ashraful Islam and the daughter of Kashem Ali of Dighaltari village in Aditmari upazila.

Meanwhile, on Sunday afternoon, March 9, a joint team of Thana police and DB police conducted a raid in Khutamara area of Lalmonirhat town and arrested the accused husband Ashraful. The accused Ashraful is being interrogated at the DB office. He said that he confessed to the murder during the initial interrogation.

It is mentioned that the husband Ashraful Islam divorced the deceased Hasina after marrying her and having a daughter. Later, she got married for the second time to a man named Nur Islam of Dighaltari village. There too, when she had a daughter, Hasina left her second husband's family and returned to her husband Ashraful. Later, Hasina had another daughter. There were frequent family conflicts in Hasina's family due to the birth of daughters and financial crisis.