Noakhali Correspondent:

Police recovered body of a teenage housewife named Fatema Maryum Arpita in Chatkhil, Noakhali. The girl's family claims it was murder. The body was recovered from Singhbahura village of Noakhola union of the upazila around 9 am on Thursday.

Deceased Arpita is the daughter of Belal Hussain of Shahneyamatpur area of Chatkhil municipality and wife of Italian expatriate Rabiul Islam Rubel of Singhbahura village.

Arpita's parents and relatives claimed that Arpita (17) was killed by her in-law family members including her mother-in-law. They claimed to have found various torture marks on the deceased's body. However, Arpita's father-in-law's family claims that Arpita committed suicide by tying a veil around her neck in the bathroom around 3 am.

Talking to the locals, it is known that Rubel secretly married Arpita in February 2023 with the consent of the family. The reason for the clandestine marriage is that when the two families gave their formal wedding ceremony, the Chatkhil upazila administration dissolved the marriage for the crime of child marriage based on complaints and fined the Arpita family. Later they organized the wedding secretly to avoid the attention of the administration.

It is known that Arpita, a teenage housewife, was subjected to various tortures by her mother-in-law since her marriage.

Chatkhil Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Emdad Hossain said, I visited the spot after receiving the news. Initially, no marks of torture were found anywhere on the body. The dead body is being recovered and sent to the 250-bed Noakhali General Hospital morgue for post-mortem examination. The exact cause of death will be known once the post-mortem report is available.

DCT/OL/SMKN/END