Pahela Baishakh molesters: State minister speaks of arrests; police say they have no idea

Confusion reigns over the reported arrest of some of those who molested women during the Bengali New Year celebrations following contradictory statements by the state minister for home affairs and police.

"I can confirm without any doubt that no one has been arrested in connection with that incident," DMP Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam told bdnews24.com on Monday afternoon.

Hours earlier, State Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said in Parliament, “The IGP had announced rewards for those identified, and some of them have been arrested.”

“They’ve been handed over to the law enforcers. The rest will also be arrested,” he said while replying to an MP’s query.

However, the junior minister could not say anything concrete when bdnews24.com approached him for his response to police’s denial.

“I only gave Parliament the information I got from the IGP and police,” he said.

“Some were nabbed over that incident and some were released, while several were sent to court. Some of them were sent to jail from court. All of them were suspects,” he added.

When told investigators of the case, the Detective Branch of police, were unable to confirm his claim, Kamal told bdnews24.com: “DB did not make the arrests.”

He, however, would not say which of the law-enforcing agencies had made the arrests.

A group of youths sexually harassed several women on the Dhaka University campus during the Pahela Baishakh celebrations on Apr 14.

Several people, including Bangladesh Chhatra Union’s DU unit chief Liton Nandi, were injured while trying to stop them.

Four of the culprits were allegedly caught and handed over to police, but were later released.

Police admitted to letting them off and blamed it on an officer, who was later removed from Shahbagh Police Station.

The university and police had faced sharp criticisms, as the perpetrators remained at large even a month after the incident.

Then, on May 17, police spotted eight of the culprits while reviewing CCTV footage and announced a Tk 100,000 reward for anyone helping to detain them.

The High Court ordered the government to inform it about the progress in the case.

On May 19, the inspector general of police filed a report with the court, but its contents were not made available to the media.

Regarding the state minister’s remarks on Monday, Monirul Islam said some TV stations beamed photos of some people and claimed they were the ones involved in the incident.

But two men and a woman among them had met police to say they were there only to celebrate, he said.

“We’ve found proof of their claim that they were not involved in the harassment of women.”

An official said that police had visited the village home of one of the culprits in Barisal but did not find him there.

Detective Branch Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Nazmul Alam told bdnews24.com they were yet to get any specific lead from anyone despite the reward announced in May.

The new Shahbagh police OC, Abu Bakar Siddique, said he had little to do with the matter, as the DB were investigating the case.

Siddique joined Shahbagh Police Station on June 20.

“The incident happened before my tenure. DB are looking into it. I don’t know whether anyone was arrested before I came here,” he told bdnews24.com.