Six people were arrested on Wednesday after the body of a man was found in a suitcase stored in a freezer in Tripura’s Dhalai district, nearly three days after he went missing from Agartala. The arrested accused include a cousin of a girl the man, Shariful Islam, was in love with, police said.
“We arrested six persons, Dr Dibakar Saha, 28, his father Dipak Saha, 52, mother Debika Saha, 40, Nabanita Das, 25, Joydeep Das, 20, Animesh Yadav, 21. A love triangle was the reason behind the murder. Shariful was having an affair with a girl. Dibakar, a cousin of the girl, was also in love with her. We found messages of love exchanged from their mobile phones,” said Kiran Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Tripura West.
Shariful, 24, was engaged in the Smart City project as an electrician.
The police said that Dibakar had invited Shariful to Joydeep’s house in South Indranagar on June 8 to give him some gifts. When Shariful went there, Dibakar allegedly strangled him in the presence of Joydeep, Animesh and Nabamita. He then allegedly stuffed Shariful’s body into the suitcase by tying the hands.
Dibakar took the suitcase to Gandacherra and stored it inside an ice cream fridge at his father’s shop on June 9, the police said, adding that he had bought the suitcase two days before the murder.
A missing-person complaint was lodged at the New Capital Complex police station on June 9 by Shariful’s family.