Dhaka hotel rape: Court schedules indictment hearing

A Dhaka court has scheduled the indictment hearing in a case of rape of two university students at a hotel in the capital's posh Banani neighbourhood.

Police have pressed charges against five people, including Apan Jewellers owner's son Safat Ahmed and his two friends.

On Monday, the Women and Child Repression Prevention Tribunal-2 accepted the chargesheet submitted by police and fixed Jul 9 for the indictment hearing.

Police produced the five suspects before the court, which denied bail to them, said Prosecutor Ali Akbar.

Combination photo of Banani hotel rape suspects Shafat Ahmed (left) and Nayem Ashraf.

Two university students accused the men for rape in a case filed with Banani police last month.

Safat Ahmed had invited them to his birthday party at Banani's Raintree Hotel on Mar 28. The girls said he and his friend Nayem Ashraf forced them inside a room and raped them at gunpoint.

They accused three others -- Regnum group director Shadman Sakif, Shafat's driver Billal Hossain and bodyguard Rahmat Ali -- of aiding the rapists and filming the sexual assault.

Combination photo shows Shadman Sakif (left), Shafat's bodyguard Rahmat Ali (centre) and driver Billal Hossain.

All five gave confessional statements under Section 164 of the CrPC that allows magistrates to record confessions of any person which can be used as evidence in trial.

Shafat and Shadman were arrested from Sylhet on May 11. Billal and Rahmat were arrested in Dhaka on May 15.

Two days later, Nayem Ashraf, known as Hasan Mohammad Halim in his native Sirajganj, was arrested from Munshiganj.