Two confess to gang-rape of girl at Uttara

Two men have confessed raping a girl in Dhaka’s Uttara.

Meanwhile, evidence of the girl being raped has been found but investigators are still waiting to get forensic report to further confirm the crime.
 
“We’ve found preliminary evidence confirming that she was raped,” said Dr Bilkis Begum of the One-Stop Crisis Centre (OCC) at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital on Saturday.
 
“But we need the forensic examination report to ensure that it was a gang-rape.”
 
The girl was rushed to OCC soon after the incident.
 
The 17-year-old had now physically recuperated, but mentally she was still shattered, doctors said.
 
The victim, who works as a salesperson at Uttara’s Rajlakshmi Complex, said she was gang-raped by a colleague and two others when she was returning home from work around 8:30pm Thursday.
 
Police, quoting the victim, said her colleague ‘Arif’ and two others dragged her to an under-construction building next to the shopping centre, where they took turns in violating her.
 
Police initially detained four men over the incident, including the security guard of the building, for questioning.
 
RAB-1 arrested Arif from Dakshin Khan on Friday noon.
 
“We handed him over to Uttara West Police Station on Saturday afternoon,” said RAB-1 Deputy Commander Md Shoyeb.
 
Uttara West police OC Ali Hossain said they arrested two suspected rapists on Friday night.
 
Sakibul Islam Babu and Aslam Hossain testified before a magistrate on Saturday, confessing their involvement in the gang-rape.
 
Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court judge Asaduzzaman Nur sent them to prison after hearing their confessions under Section-164.
 
No lawyer would represent them.
 
The two, distant cousins, were seen crying after coming out of the judge’s chamber. They hail from Jamalpur’s Madarganj.
 
“We’re involved,” they told bdnews24.com when asked about the gang-rape.
 
They told the court that Arif was the one who planned to rape the girl. There was another man named ‘Haider’ with him. Babu let ‘Arif’ and ‘Haider’ use the building.
 
Arif, Babu and Aslam were accused in the case lodged under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, said Uttara West Police Station OC (Investigation) Biplab Kishore Sheel.
 
Sheel is also the investigating officer of the case.
 
Police had said there were four persons involved in the incident.
 
“One is still at large. We are conducting drives to arrest him,” OC Ali Hossain said earlier in the day.