A court in Habiganj has sentenced a 42-year-old man to life imprisonment for the murder of his mother-in-law, whom he lured to Satchhari National Park under the pretence of buying gold jewellery before killing her. Delivering the verdict on Wednesday, Judge Kakon Dey of the Additional District and Sessions Judge First Court of Habiganj also imposed a fine of 10,000 BDT on the convict, Md. Oliur Rahman Oli. Should he fail to pay the penalty, he will serve an additional six months behind bars. The convict, a resident of Tulshipur village in Madhabpur upazila, was present in the dock when the judgement was delivered at 1:00 pm, as confirmed by court stenographer Md. Mukhlesur Rahman.
The tragic sequence of events dates back to the morning of 29 May 2018, when Oliur persuaded his mother-in-law, Jahanara Begum, to leave her house with him on the promise of purchasing jewellery. However, she never returned home. Distraught family members conducted searches across the region but failed to trace her whereabouts. Three days later, on 1 June 2018, police recovered the severely decomposed corpse of an unidentified woman from a dense cane grove located south of the watchtower inside Satchhari National Park in Chunarughat upazila.
The case saw a major breakthrough the following day when local newspapers published reports detailing the discovery of the unidentified body. Reading the press coverage, the victim’s son, Md. Mijanur Rahman, recognised the description of his mother’s attire and immediately went to the authorities to formally identify the deceased as Jahanara Begum. Following the identification, Mijanur filed a formal murder case at Chunarughat Police Station, naming his brother-in-law, Oliur Rahman Oli, as the primary suspect.
Following an extensive investigation, Chunarughat police submitted a formal chargesheet against Oliur on 14 January 2019. During the subsequent trial, the prosecution produced 16 witnesses who testified before the court, providing vital testimonies that established a clear timeline of the victim’s final hours.
Highlighting the technical complexity of the case, Additional Public Prosecutor Md. Gulzar Ahmed Khan revealed after the verdict that the homicide originally presented as a “clueless” crime with no direct eyewitnesses. However, prosecutors successfully established guilt through a chain of circumstantial evidence, forensic analysis, and digital footprints. The conviction relied heavily on proof that the victim was last seen leaving home with the accused, a voluntary confessional statement provided by Oliur, and Call Detail Records (CDR) proving that both their mobile phones were co-located at the crime scene inside Satchhari National Park at the estimated time of the murder. DNA testing conducted during the proceedings provided further scientific confirmation regarding the identity of the victim, ensuring a conclusive end to the trial.
