A court in Narayanganj has granted bail to one of three accused in the district’s mysterious schoolgirl abduction case.
District and Sessions Court Judge Md Anisur Rahman granted bail to boatman Khalilur Rahman on Wednesday afternoon, confirmed Inspector Md Asaduzzaman of Narayanganj Court police outpost.
“We asked for Khalil’s bail on Tuesday and it was granted today,” said Adv Abdul Latif, a lawyer from the defendants’ side.
A 15-year-old went missing on July 4 and she was presumed to be dead.
Following her disappearance, acting on a case filed by the girl’s father on August 4, police arrested the three suspects in connection with the reported abduction.
On August 9, the accused gave confessional statements to the court of Senior Judicial Magistrate Milton Hossain and Judicial Magistrate Ahmed Humayun Kabir.
The three confessed that they had dumped the teenager’s dead body in the Shitalakhya river after raping and murdering her.
In a surprising turn of events, on Sunday, Iqbal Pandit, allegedly the husband of the schoolgirl, called her family and informed them that she was alive and living with him.
Iqbal and the schoolgirl were detained by the police shortly thereafter.
Upon questioning by the police, the girl said she had taken off with her then boyfriend Iqbal Pandit to marry him and had been absconding since then.
The prime suspect in the abduction case, Abdullah, with whom she was last seen on July 4, had no knowledge of her intentions on the day, proving him and the two other suspects to be innocent.
Following the arrest of the three suspects, SI Shamim claimed that the schoolgirl had been murdered and her body was dumped into the Shitalakhya River by the suspects.
The events of this case has raised concerns about police’s methods of investigation and obtaining confessions, of committing a crime, even from innocents.
