A Dhaka tribunal has indicted Tanvir Iftekhar Dihan, the lone accused in the case filed over the rape and murder of an O level student in Dhaka's Kalabagan area in January last year.
Judge AM Zulfikar Hayat of the Dhaka’s Seventh Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal on Wednesday framed the charges, rejecting the discharge petition submitted by the defence counsel.
The court also set March 23 to start recording testimonies of prosecution witnesses in the case.
The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) pressed charges against Dihan in November.
On January 7 last year, law enforcers recovered the body of the 17-year-old from a Dhaka hospital, and detained Dihan and three others in this connection.
The victim’s father lodged the case against Dihan later that day.
On January 9, police released the three others after interrogation.
The victim, an O level student at Dhaka’s Mastermind School, had gone to her friend Dihan’s house in Kalabagan for group study, her family said.
Dihan, who is believed to have raped and killed her in his family flat in Kalabagan, gave a confessional statement before a magistrate on January 8.
Meanwhile, doctors found evidence of rape after performing an autopsy on the victim.