Female student ‘sexually harassed’ on city road

A female student of a private university was allegedly sexually harassed by the driver of a CNG-run auto-rickshaw at Kalabagan in the capital.

The student lodged a complaint with Kalabagan Police Station after the incident.

According to the complaint, she was going to her university from her residence adjacent to Green Road at 10:40am on Thursday. She was walking in front of Ideal School and College under Kalabagan police station area and going to the bus stop. At that time, a CNG driver came from behind, stopped the CNG and started touching her. Nearby people came to her rescue when she started calling for help, but the CNG driver fled speeding away.

"When the CNG driver fled, a policeman was standing on the road behind the Labaid Hospital. The policeman advised me to call 999 after I sought his help. After I called 999, the police told me to go to the nearest police station," the victim told The Business Standard.

At first, she went to the Dhanmondi police station where she was told that the place where the incident took place falls under the jurisdiction of Kalabagan police station. The student then went to Kalabagan police station with her mother.

The student said, "There were CCTV cameras on the spot. After informing the police, they checked the CCTV camera footage of Ideal School and College and recovered the registration number (Dhaka Metro-Tho-13-2172) of the CNG."

Police sources said that in the footage, the victim was seen screaming and trying to pull the driver out from the CNG. Hearing the girl's scream, some people surrounded the CNG and tried to stop it. But the driver continued driving and tried to run the CNG over the surrounding people. The people then moved aside and the driver fled the scene with his CNG.

The mother of the victim told TBS, "We have lodged a complaint seeking legal action. The police have seized the video footage. Let us see what action they take."

"We are very worried about how our children will go to school or college safely if such a situation prevails on the road," she added.

Kalabagan Police Station Officer-in-Charge Paritosh Chandra told TBS that they were trying to arrest the driver.