A court on Thursday sent Babul Mia, the prime suspect in the killing of three members of a family in Sylhet city’s Raynagar area, to jail.

Kotwali Police Station Officer-in-Charge Khan Md Mainul Zakir confirmed the development in the evening.

Police said their investigation found that the triple murder stemmed from a personal dispute between Babul and the family’s domestic worker, Tahmina.

Babul was arrested Wednesday afternoon from a colony in the Rajbari area of Raynagar.

During preliminary questioning, Babul reportedly admitted that he entered Nikunja Villa, a house in Mitali Residential Area, on Wednesday morning and got into an altercation with Tahmina.

At one point, Babul allegedly stabbed Tahmina with a knife. When elderly couple Abdus Sattar and Suraiya Begum came forward to save her, he allegedly attacked and killed them as well, police said.

Based on information provided by Babul, police recovered the bloodstained knife allegedly used in the killings on Thursday morning.

Abdus Sattar was a former director of the Sylhet Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a local Awami League leader.

All four of the couple’s children — three daughters and a son — live abroad. Two daughters arrived in Sylhet from the United Kingdom on Thursday afternoon and received their parents’ bodies from Osmani Medical College Hospital.

Their son Arif Iftekhar, who lives in the United States, is expected to arrive in Bangladesh on Friday. A case will be filed after his arrival, according to the family.

Police security has been tightened around the house following the killings.