A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced Parimal Joydhar, a sacked teacher of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, to rigorous life-term imprisonment for raping a 14-year-old girl at his coaching centre in 2011.
The court also fined him Tk50,000; in default, he will have to serve six months in jail under section 9(1) of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act. The authorities concerned were asked to give the money to the victim within 90 days.
Judge Saleh Uddin Ahmed of the Dhaka’s Women and Children Repression (Prevention) Tribunal 4 pronounced the verdict in a jam-packed room. Parimal was in the dock.
Delivering the verdict, the court criticised the two investigation officers for negligence in performing their duties properly. It also dismissed the defence claim that Parimal had been forced to give confessional statement.
On November 10, the tribunal ended recording closing arguments of the prosecution and the defence, and set yesterday for delivering the judgement. Twenty-eight out of the 39 prosecution witnesses testified at the court.
Hailing from Tungipara in Gopalganj, Parimal, now 35, is a married person. He had qualified in the 29th BCS exams for the administration cadre after completing his bachelor and master’s degrees from Bangabandhu College at Tungipara.
A Bangla teacher at the school’s Bashundhara branch, Parimal first raped the girl at his coaching centre in the city’s Badda area on May 28, 2011. He recorded the incident with his mobile phone, and on June 17, he blackmailed her with this into having sex with him again.
Later Parimal called the victim at the teachers’ common room of the school and suggested her to take emergency pill after giving her Tk100, the judge said.
The girl, then a student of class X at the Bashundhara branch, complained to the school authorities about this in writing after several days. The school authorities fired Parimal from his job on July 5 in the face of demonstrations by students and guardians.
The victim’s father filed the case with Badda police against Parimal, then principal of the school Hosne Ara and acting head of Bashundhara branch Lutfur Rahman on July 5.
The plaintiff alleged that Lutfur and Husne Ara had been trying to cover up the incident. Hosne Ara was suspended on July 15 in the wake of widespread criticisms and agitations by the students and other quarters.
Parimal was arrested from his relative’s home at Keraniganj on July 6. He confessed to his crimes before a magistrate on July 11. But he filed a petition on July 27 urging the court to withdraw his statement alleging that the investigation officer had tortured him in custody.
Badda police Officer-in-Charge SM Shahadat Hossain submitted the charge sheet on August 11, 2011 against Parimal, dropping the names of Hosne Ara and Lutfur.
On September 14, a Dhaka court ordered further probe in the case following a no-confidence petition filed by the victim’s father. Later, detectives submitted a supplementary charge sheet against Parimal on November 28.
The trial began after the charge-framing on March 7, 2012.
In his observation, the judge said: “The two investigators – police inspectors SM Shahadat and Mahbub-e-Khuda – showed extreme negligence and inefficiency during the investigation. Such negligence is not acceptable in any way from the two senior police officers.”
Public prosecutor Forkan Miah said: “We are happy with the verdict.”
Defence counsel Md Mahfuz Miah, however, claimed that his client was deprived of justice. “We will appeal against the verdict with the higher court,” he added.