Suspect arrested for pregnant Amsterdam student's 2018 disappearance

The police arrested a 34-year-old man from Rijswijk in connection with the disappearance of University of Amsterdam student Sumanta Bansi. The then 22-year-old Surinamese woman was nine weeks pregnant when she disappeared in February 2018.

The last sign of life from Bansi was on 18 February 2018. She was reported missing in November 2018, the police said in an Opsporing Verzocht broadcast in June 2019. Why it took so long for the young woman to be reported missing, and then months yet before the police made the case public, is not clear.

The police believe the young woman was killed in a crime. Exactly what the Rijswijk man is suspected of, is not yet clear. "The detectives are investigating what role the suspect may have played in this case," the police said in a statement on Sunday.

The police previously told NU.nl that they are investigating "multiple persons" who were "in the vicinity of the Robbenoordbos" on the day of and the day after Bansi's disappearance. "The fact that these people were there at the time makes it plausible to the police that Bansi is buried somewhere int he nature reserve," a police spokesperson said to the newspaper.

The police performed searches in the Robbenoordbos nature reserve, but Bansi's body has not yet been found.