New twist in college girl Zahida rape, murder case

The CID investigators got new clues on alleged involvement of two more youths in the killing, who are yet to be arrested.

Earlier four youths were accused and charge sheeted in the case.

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The case was transferred to CID for further investigation and submission of a fresh charge sheet following a 'naraji' (no confidence) petition to the home ministry by plaintiff Royeesuddin, elder brother of the victim.

"Investigation revealed that two more youths involved in the cruel incident were not brought to book earlier mistakenly as Sazzad and Traiaul, elder brothers of principal accused Mamun, misguided the investigators through confessional statements under Section 164", investigation officer CID Inspector Nazrul Islam told 'The Daily Star' on Sunday.

Zahida Khatun, daughter of poor farmer Raihanuddin Joarder of Boroichara Village in Sreepur upazila, appeared at the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination last year from Dariapur College.

She secured first division in HSC from Humanities group. But she could not know the result as she was raped and strangled by some local miscreants on July 5, 2002, a few days after the examination.

Zahida was returning home from her friend's house during daytime. Some miscreants allegedly led by Mamun of Dariapur village dragged her to a jute field and killed her after gangrape.

Local people said Mamun was handed over to police by his elder brother on the same day to save him from public wrath. After a few days, he was released on bail.

The local administration, at a meeting on August 27, last year, put the case on the list of "sensitive" cases and sent it to DB (detective Branch) police for investigation.

After investigation for about eight months, DB Inspector Shahidul Islam submitted two charge sheets on April 26 under Section 302/34 of Bangladesh Penal Code and Section 9(G) (Kha) of the Woman and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000.