Police have arrested an auto-rickshaw driver in connection with the death of 14-year-old schoolgirl Jannatul Tajmin, whose body was recovered from a paddy field in Jagatpur village in Cumilla’s Lalmoi Upazila. The suspect, identified as Sumon, was arrested in Chattogram on Friday afternoon, 9 October. Police said he had been in hiding since the incident.
Investigators are examining the circumstances surrounding the teenager’s death, including signs of a possible struggle in nearby paddy fields, an overturned auto-rickshaw and information recovered from her mobile phone. Police have yet to establish whether Sumon acted alone or whether others were involved.
Mohammad Lutfur Rahman, additional superintendent of police (administration) in Cumilla, confirmed the arrest to the newspaper Samakal at around 3.15pm on Friday. He said Sumon was being brought to Cumilla for questioning and that further details would be disclosed after investigators had examined his role in the case.
Tajmin’s body was found on Thursday morning, 8 October, beside an isolated paved road near the Cumilla–Noakhali regional highway in Jagatpur village, under Perul North Union of Lalmoi Upazila. A gamcha, a traditional cotton towel, was wrapped around her neck. Police initially suspected that she had been strangled, although the precise cause of death is expected to be established through a post-mortem examination.
Signs of a struggle found across several paddy fields
Local residents said they became suspicious after spotting an overturned CNG-powered auto-rickshaw beside the deserted road on Thursday morning. A vanity bag was lying approximately 20 to 30 yards away from the vehicle.
They also noticed that rice plants in four or five nearby paddy fields had been flattened and badly damaged. The scattered signs of disturbance raised the possibility that someone had chased the teenager or that a struggle had taken place before her death. However, these observations alone do not establish what happened.
Following the trail of disturbed crops, residents found the girl’s body lying face down in the mud. They subsequently contacted the police through Bangladesh’s national emergency service, 999.
Police arrived at the scene, recovered the body and seized the auto-rickshaw for examination. Investigators are expected to use the physical evidence, alongside witness accounts and other findings, to reconstruct the events leading up to the death.
Vehicle registration leads police to driver
According to police, the registration details of the seized auto-rickshaw helped them identify its owner. The owner was questioned on Thursday night and reportedly told investigators that Sumon had been operating the vehicle on a rental basis.
Police then traced Sumon and arrested him in Chattogram on Friday. Authorities have not yet publicly established the full circumstances in which the vehicle came to be overturned at the scene.
Local residents said Sumon was originally from Kachua Upazila in Chandpur district. After getting married several years ago, he began living at his in-laws’ home in Joynagar village in Lalmoi, where he was known as a ghorjamai—a husband who lives with his wife’s family.
According to residents, a family dispute led him to leave his in-laws’ home about a month before the incident. They said he had not returned since then.
Police have not confirmed whether these personal circumstances have any connection to the killing. Nor have they established publicly whether Sumon knew Tajmin before the incident. His arrest marks a significant development in the investigation, but his precise role and the possibility of other suspects remain to be determined.
Mobile phone records trace the teenager’s movements
Investigators have analysed Tajmin’s mobile phone call records and other available information to establish her movements in the days before her death. Police said the information provided leads about the places she had visited.
According to the police account, Tajmin left home on 4 October, saying she was going to visit a female friend. However, analysis of her phone records indicated that she travelled to Brahmanbaria that day.
She returned to Cumilla on 5 October and set off for Cox’s Bazar in the early hours of the following morning, according to the information provided by investigators.
On 7 October, she left Cox’s Bazar at around 12.30pm and arrived at Padua Bazar in Cumilla at approximately 10.30pm. She got down in front of Nurjahan Hotel, police said.
Closed-circuit television footage reportedly showed her getting out of a vehicle alone. Images from nearby cameras also captured her walking around with a mobile phone in her hand and a bag over her shoulder.
She was subsequently seen moving towards the road, after which her movements were no longer captured by the cameras examined by investigators.
The footage and phone records are central to efforts to establish how Tajmin travelled between districts, whom she may have encountered and how she reached the area where her body was eventually found. Police have not yet provided a complete account of her movements after she left Padua Bazar.
Father says daughter sent distress messages
Following the recovery of the body, Tajmin’s father, Abdul Alim, told journalists that his daughter had sent him messages and her live location late on Wednesday night. According to him, she indicated that she was being held against her will and asked him to rescue her.
Alim said he had been asleep when the messages arrived and did not see them immediately. He discovered them early the following morning and followed the live location, only to learn that his daughter had died.
The messages could provide investigators with important information about the teenager’s final hours, including where she believed she was being held and whether she was able to identify anyone involved. However, the exact circumstances described in the messages have not been fully disclosed by police.
Tajmin was a Year Seven pupil at Farida Vidyayatan in Cumilla city. Her father works in the Cumilla region for Renata, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company.
Although the family originally came from Chhatiantala village in Jessore Sadar Upazila, they had been living in rented accommodation in the Racecourse area of Cumilla city because of her father’s employment.
The circumstances of her journeys to Brahmanbaria and Cox’s Bazar, followed by her return to Cumilla and the messages sent to her father, have become important aspects of the investigation.
Murder case filed against unidentified suspects
Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Lalmoi Police Station, told Samakal that Tajmin’s father had filed a murder case against unidentified individuals. Police intend to question Sumon after bringing him to Cumilla and will provide further information as the investigation progresses.
Investigators are seeking to establish what happened between Tajmin’s arrival at Padua Bazar and the recovery of her body in Jagatpur. They are also examining the significance of the overturned auto-rickshaw, the vanity bag found nearby and the damaged rice plants across several fields.
The post-mortem examination is expected to help determine the precise cause of death, while the CCTV footage, mobile phone records and physical evidence may help clarify the sequence of events.
Although the arrest has provided investigators with a suspect to question, several key issues remain unresolved. Police have yet to establish whether Sumon was the sole person involved, whether anyone else assisted him or what circumstances led to the teenager’s death.
The investigation is continuing, with police relying on questioning, forensic findings and digital evidence to establish what happened to the 14-year-old schoolgirl.
