- Thursday, June 27, 2024
Aminan Rahman, 47, is accused of murdering Suma Begum, 24, who was found in the River Lea on 8 May 2023.
By: Pramod Thomas
A young mother was strangled by her husband in front of their children after he discovered her ‘affair’ with a man her age on TikTok, a court has heard.
Aminan Rahman, 47, is charged with murdering 24-year-old Suma Begum in a Docklands flat in east London on April 29 last year, reported MailOnline.
He is also accused of putting her body in a suitcase and dumping it in the River Lea, according to testimony at the Old Bailey.
It remains unclear if Begum was alive when she was put in the suitcase and thrown into the river. Her body was discovered 10 days later.
Rahman was allegedly video calling Begum’s boyfriend, Shahin Miah, 24, and making threats when he attacked her wife, the jury has heard.
Meanwhile, Miah claimed he was offered £6,000 to end the affair.
Prosecutors allege Rahman put Begum, alive or dead, into a large black suitcase early on April 30 and pushed it into the river.
According to reports, Begum moved to the UK in 2020 after marrying Rahman over the phone, and their children were aged two years and four months when she died.
Rahman denied both the murder and a previous assault on Begum on February 6, 2023.
Giving evidence with the help of a Sylheti interpreter, Miah said he was living in Bangladesh when he met Begum on TikTok after she found his account. He was living in Abu Dhabi, UAE, at the time of the alleged attack.
Though they never met in person, he described their relationship as ‘intimate.’
Miah said they started as friends for a week before he became her boyfriend, and after seven or eight months, he discovered she was married.
He found out about her husband and confronted her, leading her to admit it. Miah also learned she had married another man to enter the UK.
He explained that they communicated through WhatsApp video calls and made future plans together.
“She planned to marry me and live together. She asked me to move to London and look after her children,” he was quoted as saying.
He said Begum moved to Leeds and he believed she was no longer living with Rahman.
They also discussed plans to return to Bangladesh and marry, he testified.
Jurors saw a video sent by Begum to Miah at 2pm on February 6, 2023, showing her distressed with marks on her neck. Begum told him Rahman had come to her home to see their child.
“She told me he grabbed her by the neck, lifted her, and threw her onto the bed. After that, he stamped on her neck,” he revealed.
When Miah asked her why she didn’t call the police, she responded that Rahman had threatened to harm her family in Bangladesh if she did.
The trial in the case is ongoing.
