Nine-year-old Nusrat Jahan was murdered as she had witnessed her father's killing, police said Saturday after arresting her mother Arjina Begum and a couple who lived as tenants in the same flat.
On Thursday, the girl and her father, 38-year-old Jamil Sheikh were found dead inside their home in Dhaka's Badda. Police found Arjina and the couple's 5-year-old son sitting on the stairs.
Investigators said Jamil, who worked as a chauffeur, and his second-grader daughter were murdered by Arjina and Shahin Mallik, who lived with his wife in the same flat as Jamil's tenant.
Arjina and Shahin were involved in an 'extra-marital affair', Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Deputy Commissioner Moshtak Ahmed told the media on Saturday.
Police detained Arjina on Thursday while Shahin and his wife Masuma were held from Khulna the next day.
Ahmed said that Jamil was sleeping with his two children, when Shahin hit him on the head on the night of Thursday.
"Shahin hit him on the head with a piece of wood, when Jamil woke up. He was struck once again and died."
Jamil's daughter Nusrat woke up then and asked why her father was being assaulted, according to the senior DMP officer."Arjina then took her daughter outside, when the 9-year-old was still asking the same question."
Investigations revealed that it was then when Arjina and Shahin decided to murder Nusrat, according to Ahmed. "Arjina did not agree in the beginning, but later switched her mind to save herself."
Nusrat was then taken inside and suffocated to death by a pillow, said the DMP deputy commissioner, reports bdnews24.
Jamil and Arjina's 5-year-old son also woke up then, but fell asleep immediately, he added.
Police said they believe Shahin's wife Masuma, who was in another room in the same flat during the killings, was not aware of the plan to murder Jamil.
"She came to know after the murders took place and fled to Khulna with her husband," said DMP officer Ahmed.
Investigators said Arjina tried to save herself by claiming that the murders happened during a robbery.
Jamil, who was a chauffeur in the capital's Gulshan, had been living in Badda for 18 years.
Three months ago, he moved into the flat for Tk 7,000 a month and rented out a room to Shahin for Tk 3,000, said police.
His brother Shamim Sheikh has started a murder case with the Badda police accusing Arjina and Shahin.