Detective Branch (DB) officials freed two suspected Pohela Boishakh sex offenders and a woman after recording their statements under section 54 yesterday.
Requesting anonymity, a high official of DB, the lead investigators of the case, said a few days back two young men and a woman, came to their office and claimed that they were trying to save their friends during the incident. The woman who claimed herself as a victim of the attack said the two men were her friends and they came to know about the matter through newspapers.
At least 20 women were reported to have been sexually assaulted while returning home after celebrating Pohela Boishakh on the Dhaka University campus on April 14 this year.
Meanwhile, Junior home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal changed the remarks that he made in the Parliament over the arrest of assaulters on Monday.
At a press briefing at the Home Ministry yesterday, he said police have not arrested any identified molester yet.
However on Monday the minister 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.
Yesterday Kamal said the three suspects who visited the DB office were sent to the court under section 54 of Bangladesh Penal Code. They were freed after being testified.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) declared Tk1 lakh bounty for help in the capture of eight people who were involved in the sexual assaults during the Pohela Boishak celebrations.
They identified eight wrongdoers after analysing the video footage of the CCTV cameras at Dhaka University. Now the number of suspects had come down to six, said the high official of DB.
