High Court dishes out 18 directives to protect rape victims

The High Court has issued 18 directives in a verdict ordering that any relevant police station must record a rape case and samples be sent for DNA test to a forensic laboratory within 48 hours from the alleged crime taking place, a lawyer says.

It has asked authorities to consider those directives as ‘guidelines’ and follow them until a specific law is made to ensure protection, security, investigation and justice for women and children who are sexually abused or raped.

The bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo gave the directions in the full verdict upon a writ petition filed by human-rights organisation – Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust or BLAST – on Feb 18, 2016. The full verdict was released in April.

BLAST lawyer Sharmin Akter told bdnews24.com on Sunday, “In the ruling, the court said the victim can start a case in any police stations and the case will have to be recorded without any delay.”

"Victims must be given the security they need and have their privacy protected. "

The court in those directives said a website will have to be opened immediately, where the complainant can register their complaints or information; the relevant officer at the police station cannot refuse or procrastinate the recording of the complaint without specific reasons.

Every police station will make a list of women social workers who will cooperate with the police station; and the statement of the victim will have to recorded in the presence of security officers, social workers, lawyers or anyone of the victim’s choice, according to the directives.

In case of women with disability, children or young people who are unable to understand, 'clerical services' will have to be given

The writ petition had challenged the delay in recording a case following the gangrape of a Garo girl in the capital on May 21, 2015.

The teenager was waiting in a CNG station in Kuril around 9pm to go to Uttara. There, some miscreants dragged her into a microbus, took thurns to violate her and then dropped her on Jasimuddin Road in Uttara around 11pm.

According to media reports, police wasted time in recording her complaint.

Five rights organisations – Nari Pakkho, Mahila Parishad, Jatiya Adibasi Parishad, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, and Ain O Salish Kendra – filed the writ petition with the HC on May 24, 2015 seeking orders over the gangrape.