Court remands Garo girl rape prime suspect

Police have been granted six days to interrogate the prime suspect in the rape of a Garo girl at Dhaka's Badda.

Rafsan Hossain Rubel was produced before a Dhaka court on Tuesday when police sought a ten-day remand.

After hearing the matter, Metropolitan Magistrate Sadbir Yasir Ahsan Chowdhury granted six days, Inspector Nazrul Islam of Badda police told bdnews24.com.

The defendant had no lawyer to represent him in the court, said the police officer.

Rubel, who lives in Dhaka's Badda, is accused in several cases of rape, extortion, robbery, narcotics and illegal firearms. He has been convicted in one of those cases, said police.

On Oct 25, a Garo girl was whisked away when she was with her fiancé in Badda and raped.

A case was started with the Badda police on Oct 28 naming Rubel as the prime suspect. Police arrested an accomplice of Rubel, on Salahuddin Mina the same day.

On Nov 11, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested him from the Airport Railway Station area in the capital. He was then handed over to the police.

On Sunday, Rubel managed to give his police escort the slip when on way to a Dhaka court for recording his statement before a magistrate. Two policemen have been suspended for negligence of duty following the incident.

He was arrested again from the capital's Badda early on Tuesday, said Dhaka metro police spokesperson Masudur Rahman.