A local official of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in Jamalpur’s Melandhah sub-district has been left in distress following the sudden disappearance of his bride just twenty days after their marriage. The woman allegedly absconded with gold jewellery valued at nearly 700,000 taka, accompanied by a municipal worker whom she previously introduced as her maternal uncle.
The victim, Md Sujon, who serves as the Joint General Secretary of the Jaugara Union unit of the BNP, married twenty-seven-year-old Sumi Akter on 1 October under formal registry protocols. To mark the wedding, Sujon presented his bride with substantial gold ornaments, including two rings, a chain, a pair of bangles, and a set of earrings, with an estimated market value of 696,500 Bangladeshi Taka.
According to police sources and the case dossier, trouble brewed shortly after the nuptials. Emdadul Huq Archon, a forty-five-year-old municipal refuse vehicle driver from Shahjadpur and the alleged ‘maternal uncle’ of the bride, had reportedly been inciting Sumi. On the evening of 20 October, while Sujon was away from home, Archon arrived at the residence under the pretext of taking Sumi to her parental home. Despite objections from Sujon’s mother, who urged her daughter-in-law to await her husband’s return, Sumi departed with Archon.
Subsequent attempts by Sujon to reach his wife via mobile phone proved futile as the device remained switched off. Alarm bells rang the following day when Sujon dispatched his sister-in-law and nephew to his father-in-law’s residence, only to discover that Sumi had never arrived there. Further inquiries revealed that she had vanished alongside Archon.
Sujon subsequently lodged a formal written complaint with the local authorities. Acting on the complaint, officers from Melandhah Police Station executed an early morning raid on Friday, arresting Archon at a rented premises in Jamalpur municipality. Information elicited during preliminary questioning led the police to Sumi’s location, resulting in her swift arrest from the same area.
A visibly distraught Sujon expressed his profound shock over the betrayal, stating that he had entered the marriage with high hopes and had never anticipated such an outcome within three weeks. Officer-in-Charge of Melandhah Police Station, ATM Mahmudul Huq, confirmed that both Emdadul Huq Archon and Sumi Akter have been arrested on charges of fraud and misappropriation of gold jewellery, and were presented before the court on Friday afternoon.
