Junior home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal yesterday said in parliament that several culprits of the Pohela Boishakh assault on women had been arrested, although police said they had not yet made any arrests in this connection.
“We have arrested some of them. I can tell you that those who have done this have been identified and some of them have already been handed over to the law enforcement agencies ... Others will face the same action,” Kamal told the house in response to a query.
However, when contacted a couple of hours later, a spokesperson of police’s Detective Branch (DB), the lead investigators, denied the minister’s claim.
“I do not know anything about the state minister’s statement on the arrest of some culprits of the Pohela Boishakh assault. But no one has been arrested until now,” said Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of DB.
He also said that after that incident, analysing video footage, some were branded as culprits. But two alleged assaulters – two men and a woman – had met the investigators and said that they had not been involved; they said they went to take part in the celebrations on that day.
Investigators have later found their claim was true, the DB boss said.
He also said: “Police also went to the house of one alleged culprit in Barisal. But only an elderly person was found there who had not come to Dhaka in five years.”
In parliament, describing Pohela Boishakh as one of the biggest festivals in the country, the junior minister said: “We have put in place some rules this time, but people’s emotions were so high that the law enforcement agencies were awfully busy tackling the situation.”
The culprits carried out the assaults taking advantage of the fact that law enforcers were really busy tackling a massive crowd, he explained, adding that his ministry would be on high alert to avert such incidents in the future.
On May 17, police declared Tk1 lakh bounty for providing information on eight people for their involvement in the series of sexual assaults on women and children on Dhaka University campus during Pohela Boishakh.
They said they had narrowed down eight faces from video footage but did not know their names or whereabouts.
As of yesterday, nobody has provided police with any accurate information on those eight people.
