Siraj-ud-Daula, the principal of a madrasa in Feni’s Songazi upazila, has confessed to ordering the killing of student Nusrat Jahan Rafi as she refused to withdraw sexual abuse charges against him, police said.
On Sunday (Apr 28), the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) produced him before a Feni court, when Senior Judicial Magistrate Zakri Hossain recorded his confessional statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Citing the confessional statement, PBI Special Superintendent Md Iqbal told the media that Siraj gave the orders to his students and associates Nur Uddin and Shahadat Hossain Shamim from jail.
“He ordered them to burn her to death if she did not agree to withdraw the case. He asked them to cover up the murder as a suicide,” he said.
Earlier on Apr 10, a Feni court remanded Siraj for seven days over the murder.
Meanwhile, the monthly pay order (MPO) of Siraj and the madrasa’s lecturer Afsar Uddin were scrapped by the authorities on Sunday.
Under MPO, government gives 100 per cent basic pay to the enlisted teachers of non-government schools. They also get a small amount as allowances in the scheme.
Nusrat, who was an Alim examinee, suffered 80 percent burns when she was set on fire — by four burqa-clad assailants, who were followers of Siraj — on the roof of the institution at Sonagazi upazila on Apr 6.
She was attacked for refusing to withdraw a case her family had filed in March, against the now-suspended principal Siraj, for sexually harassing and assaulting her.
After she was set on fire, her family filed another case against eight people, including Siraj, on Apr 8.
On Apr 10, the18-year-old girl succumbed to her injuries at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital .