Allegation of rape against 13 people including OC of Hatirjheel police station

A woman on Tuesday filed a case in the Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-7 against 13 people, including the officer-in-charge (OC) of Hatirjheel police station for gang-raping her after abduction.

The court heard the statement of the plaintiff and the initial truth of this incident was found. The court said it would issue the next order later, plaintiff's lawyer Zakir Hossain Hawlader told TBS. 

The accused in the case are Hatirjheel Police Station OC Abdur Rashid, OC (investigation) Mohiuddin Faruk, OC (operations) Golam Azam and two Sub-inspectors Shariful and Choyan. The others are Aleya and Tanim Reza Bappi, who are the plaintiff's acquaintances, Kazi Tofazzal Hossain, Javel Hossain Papon, Jamal, Rakibul Hasan, Pannu Hawladar and Yusuf Ripon.

According to the statement of the case, the victim woman, mother of one son, used to live at her father's house in the capital's Khilgaon since she divorced her husband. She was introduced to Tanim Reza Bappi, the number one accused in the case, a year ago through her relative Rita Akhter. On 22 October 2020, he married her.

After two months, Tanim's attitude raised suspicion in her and she asked for the certificate but he did not provide it, showing various excuses. He used to beat and threaten her too. Later, she went to the marriage registration office where the marriage register told her he did not register her marriage. 

ON 13 February, Javel Hossain Papon and Md Jamal abducted her and raped her in the Hatirjheel area. Aleya video recorded the incident. Later, the victim called 999 and got admitted to the one-stop crisis centre in Dhaka Medical College. 

On 16 February, she submitted a written complaint with Hatirjheel police station. There, police members and the accused kept her waiting for 2.5 hours but did not collect any evidence of the rape. In the statement, she also alleged that policemen took bribes from the accused to settle the case.

The accused were unreachable for comment. 

Tejgaon Division Deputy Commissioner of Police Biplob Kumar Sarkar told TBS that he has not yet received the order of the court in this regard. The next action would be conducted according to the order.