No one listens to us because we are not university students: physically challenged ‘rape victim’

A physically challenged young woman has alleged police negligence to arrest the suspect in a rape case she had started.

The 20-year old, who lost her hands after falling from a train, charged one ‘Sajeeb’, 25, on May 22 last year at Dhaka's Khilgaon Police Station with raping her.

Police did not arrest him despite her repeated requests, the woman from Kishoreganj alleged.

“They did not even try,” she told bdnews24.com on the premises of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrates Court of Dhaka on Thursday.

“Police do not even listen to what we say because we are poor and we don’t go to university,” she added.

The woman was referring to the arrest of a suspect in the rape of a Dhaka University student.

The law enforcers made the arrest three days into the incident in the capital amid widespread protests and following promises of quick steps by the government and police to catch him.  

A demonstrator carrying a placard during on the Dhaka University campus on Tuesday during protests against the rape of a student. Photo: Mahmud Zaman Ove

Dhaka University Central Students’ Union Vice-President Nurul Haque Nur alleged amid the protests that a “culture of impunity” has led to a rise in sexual violence against women.

Justice is now served in Bangladesh only when street protests are staged over any incident, he had said.

While speaking to bdnews24.com, the woman with physical disabilities expressed frustration as police did not arrest her alleged rapist in seven months.

The woman claimed she had got pregnant as the suspect raped her by promising her marriage. He also forced her to take drugs for abortion and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the incident, she said.

Sajeeb misbehaved with the woman and Kausar Ahmed, the lawyer for her, when they went to talk to him for a settlement through marriage, the alleged victim said.

She urged the journalists at the court to report about her case and hoped that the news would force police to arrest the suspect.

After investigation, Khilgaon Police Station Sub-Inspector Rushdi Hasan filed the charge sheet in the court on Nov 27 last year.

The Third Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal in Dhaka is set to frame the charges on Feb 23.