Police have identified the woman whose body was found in a trunk at Gabtoli Bus stand in 2015 and arrested the prime accused from Cumilla district.
The deceased was Shampa Begum, daughter of Ilias Sheikh a medical assistant hailing from Khulna.
Member of Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) arrested retired navy member Rezaul Karim Shwapon from Cumilla EPZ area on Friday morning.
According to PBI, on March 5, 2015 a man collected a ticket of a Dhaka-bound bus of Eagle Pribahan from Chattogram and kept a trunk in the cargo box of the bus but he didn’t get in.
Also read: Decomposed body of 'foreign citizen' recovered from Kushiara river
As the bus reached Gabtoli bus around 5:45 pm the driver and his assistant found the trunk and informed police out of suspicion.
Police recovered the body and sent it for an autopsy.
As the identity of the woman could not known, the body was buried as an unclaimed one and sub-inspector Jahanur Ali filed a case at Darussalam police station in this regard.
After three months of investigation by police and another four years of investigation by Crime Investigation Department (CID)a report on the case was submitted to a court.
As the victim remained unidentified the court rejected the report and directed to hand over the case to PBI for further investigation in 2019.
Also read: Police recover body of a tourist from Cox's Bazar hotel
The PBI investigation found Shampa was acquainted with Rezaul Karim Shwapon in 2013 and a relationship developed between them but Rezaul did not agree to marry her.
They rented a room at South Green View area under Pahartali polcie station in Chattogram and lived there from 2014 to May, 2015.
Accused Rezaul confessed to killing Shampa by strangulation on March 2, 2015 and later hid the body in the trunk.
Rezaul informed Shampa’s family that he had sent her off to Khulna by a bus.
As she didn’t reach Khulna, her family filed a missing diary and later filed a complaint with Chattogram Naval office against Rezaul.
In 2019, Razaul was sent to forced retirement, said PBI.