Schoolboy Apratim Beaten to Death for Resisting a Phone Snatching: Chargesheet Filed against Four in Cumilla Court
Thirteen-year-old schoolboy Ishayat Shahriar Apratim was beaten on the head with a bamboo stick and killed after he resisted an attempt to snatch his mobile phone — that is the allegation with which police have now filed a chargesheet against four people in court. The chargesheet was submitted to the court on 20 October.
The dead boy was the only child of Dr Nahida Begum, an associate professor in the Bangla department of Cumilla University. Additional Superintendent of Police of Cumilla district Lutfor Rahman confirmed the filing of the chargesheet on Friday (23 October) morning.
Additional SP Lutfor Rahman said: “We have finished our work and sent the chargesheet to the court. The court will do the rest now.” The investigation phase is over — this heartbreaking murder case is now set to move onto the trial stage.
According to the chargesheet, Apratim was killed because he resisted the snatching of his mobile phone. Saiful Islam Tuhin, Mozaffar Hossen Fahad and Kamrul Hasan have been accused of direct involvement in the killing, while Siam has been accused of involvement in planning the murder.
Police investigation found that on the afternoon of 18 September, Tuhin took Apratim to a secluded patch of forest in the Sananda area near the Lalmai hills. There, when an attempt was made to snatch Apratim's mobile phone, he resisted. That resistance — over a single mobile phone — cost the boy his life.
At one stage of the scuffle, Tuhin first, and then Fahad and Kamrul, struck Apratim on the head with a bamboo stick. The chargesheet states that Apratim died from those blows. The killing happened in a deserted forest, with no one nearby to come to his aid.
The investigation found its thread through technology. After Apratim's body was recovered, police reviewed CCTV footage from the surrounding area and identified Tuhin as the person who had been with him. Tuhin was then taken into custody and interrogated.
Acting on information given by Tuhin, police detained Fahad and Kamrul. A raid on Tuhin's home also recovered the mobile phone Apratim had used — the very phone whose attempted snatching started the killing. The recovered phone is an important piece of evidence in the case.
According to police, after confirming Apratim's death, Tuhin, Fahad and Kamrul fled the scene with his mobile phone. Even after the killing, in other words, the accused were after that same phone.
Apratim was a seventh-grade student at Border Guard Public School in Cumilla. His father, KM Firoz Shahriar, is a businessman and is also the plaintiff in the case. All the dreams of the family — a university teacher mother and a businessman father — were centred on their only child.
The plaintiff and father, KM Firoz Shahriar, said: “On Thursday the investigating officer informed me that the chargesheet has been submitted to the court. Our dream of living was around our son. The killers have snatched that dream away. We want a swift trial of the killers.”
He added that he hopes the accused will receive the maximum punishment from the court within a short time. “So that the accused cannot slip out by exploiting the loophole of age” — this fear and demand of the father is now the biggest question on the road ahead for the case.
Once the court accepts the chargesheet, trial proceedings will begin. The case will move forward on the CCTV footage, the recovered mobile phone and the information given by the accused. For a family that has lost its only child, all eyes are now on the court — their only demand is a swift trial and the maximum punishment.
