Police have arrested a CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver in Chattogram in connection with the murder of a 15-year-old Class VII student whose body was recovered from a paddy field in Lalmai upazila of Cumilla on Thursday.

The arrestee, Sumon, was the driver of the auto-rickshaw that carried the schoolgirl before her death, said Additional Superintendent of Police (Administration and Finance) Md Lutfar Rahman.

Tipped off, several police teams conducted a drive in Chattogram city and arrested Sumon early Friday, he said, adding that a team was bringing him to Cumilla.

Further details will be disclosed at a press conference after his arrival in Cumilla, the official said. However, he did not specify when the press conference will be held.

Earlier on Thursday morning, police recovered the body of Jannatul Tazmin, daughter of Abdul Alim of Churamankati in Jashore Sadar, from a paddy field in Jagatpur of Lalmai upazila.

She was a seventh-grade student of Farida Vidyayatan in Cumilla city.

Lalmai Police Station Officer-in-Charge Md Mizanur Rahman said police recovered the body around 7:00am from the paddy field near Manumura jungle in Jagatpur Northpara. A green CNG-run autorickshaw was also found abandoned nearby.

Locals spotted the vehicle and later found the girl’s body about 50 yards from the road, lying beside a field ridge with a gamcha wrapped around her neck.

The girl’s father, Abdul Alim, said she left their rented home in Cumilla on October 4, saying she was going to a friend’s house, and later travelled to Cox’s Bazar with the friend. He last spoke to her around 2:00am Thursday after she returned to Cumilla.

After losing contact with her, he traced her mobile phone location to the Lalmai area and later learned that her body had been recovered from Jagatpur.

Later, he filed a murder case with Lalmai police station against unidentified people over his daughter’s death.