Seventh grader Jannatul Tazmim, whose body was recovered from a paddy field in Lalmai upazila of Cumilla, was strangled to death after rape, said Additional Superintendent of Cumilla Police (crime) Pankaj Barua.

Tazmim boarded a CNG-run auto-rickshaw from in front of Hotel Nurjahan at Paduar Bazar in Cumilla city on Wednesday to go to her Racecourse residence in the city, said ASP Pankaj at a press briefing held at its office on Saturday.

But autorickshaw driver Sumon took her to Jagatpur in Lalmai Upazila instead of taking her to the city.

“Around 2:58 am, while still inside the moving auto-rickshaw, Tazmim sent her live location to her father’s WhatsApp number, desperately pleading with him to come. However, her father was asleep at the time and did not see the message,” he police.

Later, he managed to flee the scene leaving behind his auto-rickshaw.

Later on Friday, police arrested driver Sumon from Chattogram .

Police said the iPhone of Tazmim was recovered from the possession of Sumon.

On Thursday morning, police recovered the body of Tazmim, daughter of Abdul Alim of Churamankati in Jashore Sadar and a seventh-grade student of Farida Vidyayatan in Cumilla city, from a paddy field in Jagatpur of Lalmai upazila.

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

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 on Thursday after she returned to Cumilla.

After losing contact with her, he traced her mobile phone location to 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.