Neighbours described the Chakraborty family as “courteous” but said they didn’t have a close relationship with many people in the area.
When Bangladesh Police broke the lock and entered a darkened house in Rangpur city, it found a dead Hindu family inside. A retired schoolteacher, 65-year-old Ganapati Chakraborty, was allegedly killed, along with his wife and two children, their bodies found in three different locations in the house, according to the police account.
“My uncle had no enemies,” Chakraborty’s niece Soma told Bangladeshi news outlet The Daily Star, recalling that she had last spoken to him on Thursday afternoon.
But what led to the violent crime? Police suspect the father encountered Yaba drug users on his roof and questioned them. The drug users allegedly retaliated, strangling him with a gamchha, a cotton scarf commonly used in the country.
Neighbours described the Chakraborty family as “courteous” but said they didn’t have a close relationship with many people in the area. The family had started living in the three-storey house four years ago, but a neighbour described the building as “still incomplete”.
Who were the four members of the Chakraborty family?
The body of the father, identified as retired Rangpur Zilla School teacher Ganapati Chakraborty was found on the roof. The bodies of his wife Pritilata Chakraborty, 50, and daughter Agami Chakraborty Prarthi, 23, were recovered from the staircase. The couple’s son Priyam Chakraborty, 12, was found under a bed, according to Bangladeshi news outlet The Daily Star, which quoted Subir Chowdhury, in-charge of Rangpur Metropolitan CID.
Inside the house, the lights were shut and the household belongings scattered. Police allege this was an attempt to make the killings look like a robbery.
Retired teacher had become a homeopathic practitioner
Soma Chakraborty, Ganapati’s niece, told The Daily Star that she reached the Chakraborty home on Saturday night after receiving the news.
“I came here and saw his body. The bodies of my aunt, sister and brother were also lying there. My uncle had no enemies. After retiring from school, he started working as a homoeopathic practitioner,” she said.
Police suspect that the four were strangled to death. The bodies have been sent to the morgue of Rangpur Medical College Hospital for autopsies, Sanatan Chakrabarty, deputy commissioner of Rangpur Metropolitan Police and head of the Detective Branch, told the media outlet.
Two cousins detained in Rangpur family killings
The police earlier believed this could be a case of a robbery gone wrong, with a joint investigation of the Police, CID and Detective Branch teams underway. Two people, Mughdho and Siddhartha, are in police detention, according to news agency PTI. But Dhaka-based daily Prothom Alo said the killings took place after Chakraborty questioned drug use on his roof.
Why were the Hindu teacher and his family killed? Police explain
It is suspected that the duo, who are said to be cousins, climbed onto the roof of Chakraborty’s house through a nearby building on Thursday. They carried Yaba, an illicit, highly addictive drug sold in the form of tablets, that contain methamphetamine and caffeine.
On the fateful day, the retired Hindu teacher heard noises from his roof and walked up to the terrace. Seeing the two intruders, he questioned them, the police say. The suspects then allegedly strangled him with a cotton towel, Rangpur Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mohammad Abdul Mabud said in a press briefing on Sunday.
The commotion caught the attention of Chakraborty’s wife, who was strangled next, police said, followed by their two children.
