Dhaka court sets verdict in Raintree hotel rape case for Tuesday

A court will deliver the verdict in a case against Shafat Ahmed, the son of an Apan Jewellers co-owner, and four others on Tuesday over the alleged rape of two university students at the Raintree hotel in Dhaka.

Public Prosecutor Afroza Farhana Ahmed Orange said judge Mosammat Kamrunnahar of No. 2 Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal will deliver the verdict.

Besides Shafat, the defendants in the case are Shafat’s friend Shadman Sakif, a director of Regnum Group, Nayem Ashraf, an employee of E-Makers Event Management, Shafat's driver Billal Hossain and bodyguard Rahmat Ali. All five had been out on bail, but were sent to jail on Oct 3 ahead of the verdict.

Two university students accused the men of involvement in the rape in a case filed with Banani police in May 2017, a month after the alleged incident.

Shafat had invited the two to his birthday party at Banani's Raintree Hotel on Mar 28 that year. The girls said he and his friend Ashraf forced them into a room and raped them at gunpoint.

They accused the three others of aiding the rapists and filming the sexual assault.

Shafat and Shadman were arrested in Sylhet days after the case was filed. Billal and Rahmat were arrested in Dhaka. Nayem Ashraf, known as Hasan Mohammad Halim in his native district of Sirajganj, was arrested in Munshiganj.

Amid an uproar, customs officials raided Apan Jewellers outlets and filed a case against Dildar Ahmed, Shafat’s father, after finding illegal caches of gold.

The defence alleged Shafat’s former wife Faria Mahbub Piasha instigated the filing of the case. Piasha, a model, has been arrested in a recent drugs case.