Court to ‘defer’ verdict in Raintree rape case

A state lawyer says the verdict in the Raintree Hotel rape case will be deferred as the judge is currently on leave.

Court Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 12 Oct 2021, 04:29 AM
Updated : 12 Oct 2021, 05:17 AM

The case is currently before the court of Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-2 Judge Mosammat Kamrunnahar, who had set Tuesday for the date of the verdict.

But Afroza Farhana Ahmed, a public prosecutor at the tribunal, told bdnews24.com on Tuesday morning that the decision would be deferred because the judge was currently on vacation.

The verdict has yet to be prepared and another date for it will be fixed, she added.

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

The suspects include Shafat Ahmed, the son of an Apan Jewellers co-owner, 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.

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.