Rangpur Metropolitan Police said two arrested suspects gave court statements describing the alleged killing of retired Rangpur Zilla School teacher Ganapati Chakraborty and three family members at their Machhuapara home in Rangpur. Police Commissioner Abdul Mabud said the suspects claimed they were seen consuming yaba on the roof after 20 August and then killed the victims by strangulation.

According to the briefing, Ganapati, his wife and daughter were allegedly killed on the roof, while 12-year-old Ayush Chakraborty was killed inside after waking up. The suspects allegedly moved bodies to less visible areas, cut an electrical wire over fears of CCTV, ransacked rooms to portray the incident as robbery, and took gold jewellery and Tk15,000.

Police said Mugdha Das was arrested at a cremation ground about three kilometres away after allegedly seeking water and shelter from caretaker Bidyut Das, who later gave a Section 164 statement in court. Postmortem reports confirmed strangulation in all four deaths, police said. Testing of the suspects’ dope and DNA samples is under way. Police said vaginal-swab tests found no evidence of rape.