Police have recovered the skeletal remains, pants and a shirt believed to be those of a 20-year-old youth who went missing 25 days ago in Phulpur upazila of Mymensingh.

The deceased was identified as Rashedul Islam, son of Shahjahan of Krishna Maheshpatti village in the upazila.

The remains and clothes were recovered from an abandoned homestead around 11:00pm on Sunday, said Sub-Inspector of Phulpur Police Station Zikrul Islam.

Being informed, Rashedul’s father went to the spot and identified the remains as those of his son by seeing the clothes scattered around the skeleton.

The recovery came following the arrest of three people in connection with the incident. The arrestees are Jasim Uddin, 24, Rafiqul, 28, and Mozammel Hossain, 27.

During preliminary interrogation, the suspects confessed that they strangled Rashedul to death, police claimed.

However, the exact motive behind the killing could not be known yet.

Family members of the deceased claimed that Jasim called Rashedul out of his home over the phone around 9:00pm on August 12, and since then, he remained missing.

Later, a call was made to Rashedul’s father from his son’s mobile phone. A woman demanded Tk 50,000 as ransom and gave the family two hours to pay the ransom. Several calls and text messages were also made.

Later, a general diary was lodged with Phulpur Police Station on the same day.

On August 25, an abduction case was filed with Phulpur Police Station, naming Jasim as the main accused and making three to four unidentified people as accused.

During investigation, police arrested Jasim from Netrokona on Sunday afternoon.

Following information gleaned from him during interrogation, police later arrested Rafiqul and Mozammel from Chandrapur village on Sunday night.

Later, police recovered scattered bones, a human skull, pants and a shirt based on information provided by them.

Rashedul’s father Shahjahan said his son worked in a cucumber field with Rafiqul and Mozammel about a month earlier. He alleged that Rafiqul received Tk 500 as wages while Rashedul was paid Tk 100.

Shahjahan said Rafiqul consumed Yaba with the money. Both Rafiqul and Rashedul had an altercation when Rashedul demanded his outstanding wages after his mobile phone was damaged.

Police said the recovered bone fragments were sent to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital morgue on Monday for DNA test.