RAB starts case against 28 suspected homosexual youths under drugs law

RAB has initiated a case under the drugs law against 28 youths arrested from an alleged party of homosexuals at a community centre in Dhaka’s Keraniganj.

Court Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 20 May 2017, 02:34 PM
Updated : 20 May 2017, 03:00 PM

The RAB, however, said on Sunday that there were no evidence that the accused were involved in any homosexual activity in the community centre.

“They were found to be taking drugs. That’s why the case has been initiated under drugs law,” said RAB-10 commander Zahangir Hossain Matubbar.

Sixteen of the youths, aged between 20 and 25, were produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on Sunday, a day after the arrest.

The court granted police two days to grill four of them in custody.

It sent the 12 others to jail and gave police permission to quiz them at the jail gates.

The youths, mostly students, gathered at the Chhayaneer Community Centre at Antibazar in Keraniganj in the wee hours on Saturday.

International human rights organisations, especially those for LGBT rights, voice concern over threats on lives of homosexuals in Bangladesh.

The local people, however, complained that the youths gather for the homosexual party in the community centre once in two months.

The RAB official told bdnews24.com after the raid that the youths admitted that they were homosexuals. He also said condoms and lubricants were found on them.

Keraniganj Police Station Sub-Inspector SM Mehedi Hasan, who is investigating the case, said he mentioned the homosexuality issue in the remand petition.

“Various drugs including yaba were found in their possession. They gathered in the community centre for unusual sexual acts,” he said.

He also said that they were invited through Facebook and needed to be quizzed to identify the others in the group.

Homosexuality has been legalised in many countries, but not in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, where ‘unnatural’ sexual activities are considered punishable offence.