A girl child was killed while her mother and a sister sustained injuries when her teenage cousin attacked them to loot their house in the city’s Badda in broad daylight yesterday.
Four-year-old Suborna Rani Mridha was declared dead at Dhaka Medical College Hospital after she was rushed there. Her mother Rina Rani Mridha, 35, and two-year-old sister Swarna Rani Mridha are taking treatment at the hospital.
Suborna’s father Bhabadish Mridha said quoting his wife that his nephew Manik, 17, took a friend to their house in the city’s Uttar Badda around 11:30am. When Rina was preparing refreshments for them, Manik along with his friend made the attack.
He was out of the house when the incident occurred, he added.
Lying on a hospital bed, Rina told The Daily Star, “I was talking to them. All of a sudden they grabbed me from behind. I fell unconscious when they were trying to strangulate me.”
DMCH doctors said Suborna might have been strangled while her mother Rina suffered stab injuries to different parts of the body. The attackers might also have tried to strangle Swarna.
Bhabadish, a carpenter by profession, said his two other daughters–class-VI student Susmita, 12, and class-V student Soma, 10–found their mother and two sisters lying unconscious after they returned from their school at about 12:15pm.
Manik and his friend took away about four tolas of gold ornaments and Tk 80,000 from their house, he said.
A neighbour, Lipi Begum, who along with two other neighbours took the victims to DMCH, said, “As I heard Susmita and Soma crying, I ran to their house to find Rina and her two daughters lying on the floor. The house was ransacked.”
She also said she saw Manik and the other boy enter the house but could not tell when they left the house.
Talking to The Daily Star, Bhabadish said Manik grew up in his house after his father died. He only (Bhabadis) trained Manik as a carpenter, but recently ousted him due to his bad mentality.
“Manik had been disturbing my eldest daughter despite being a cousin of her,” said Bhabadish.
Badda police, meanwhile, detained Manik from Merul Badda, said Officer-in-Charge Mahbubur Rahman. Manik named his friend as Prokash.