Cumilla, Sep 20 (V7N)- Cumilla Superintendent of Police (SP) Md. Anisuzzaman has said 13-year-old Ishayat Shahriar Oprotim was allegedly killed as part of a plot to steal the iPhone he was carrying.

The SP disclosed the details at a press briefing on Sunday regarding the murder of Oprotim, the only son of Cumilla University Bangla Department Associate Professor Dr. Nahida Begum.

According to the SP, police launched the investigation after Oprotim was reported missing through a General Diary (GD). CCTV footage later showed Tuhin accompanying Oprotim toward a wooded area, leading investigators to detain him.

During questioning, Tuhin allegedly told police that Oprotim had been taken into the woods with the intention of stealing his iPhone and that Fahad was involved in the plan. After Fahad was detained and questioned, he allegedly named Kamrul as another person involved, the SP said.

Police said Oprotim was attacked after resisting the attempt to take his phone. The SP alleged that Tuhin, Fahad and Kamrul assaulted him with a bamboo stick before fleeing with the iPhone.

Acting on information obtained during the investigation, police later recovered the iPhone from Tuhin’s residence. Another person, identified as Siam, has also been detained, while investigators are examining whether anyone else was involved.

Police said CCTV footage, witness information and statements from those detained helped investigators reconstruct the events surrounding Oprotim’s disappearance and death.

Oprotim, a seventh-grade student at Cumilla Border Guard School, left home around 3:30pm on Friday with his mother’s iPhone, telling his family that he was going to Shalban Vihara with friends to take photographs. When he failed to return, his mother filed a GD at Cumilla Sadar South Police Station.

His body was recovered from a wooded area near Cumilla University on Saturday, nearly 24 hours after he went missing. His death sparked widespread concern, while appeals for information about his whereabouts circulated on social media.

Oprotim was buried at Gandhamati Graveyard in Kotbari on Sunday following his second Janaza. The first funeral prayer was held at the central field of Cumilla University, where teachers, students and staff joined family members and relatives in mourning the teenager.

Police said the investigation remains ongoing as authorities work to determine whether others were involved in the killing.

END/SMA/AJ