A teenage working girl was reportedly gang-raped by some men, one of whom was her colleague, in the capital’s Uttara area on Thursday night.
The victim, 17, works at a chain retail outlet Rajlakshmi Complex branch in Uttara's Azampur area and lives with her family in Uttara, her brother-in-law said.
She was taken to the One-Stop Crisis Centre (OCC) at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) next morning for medical tests and treatment.
Quoting the victim, her brother-in-law said she left work around 8:30pm on Thursday, and her co-worker was accompanying her on her way home when all of a sudden two men joined them and the three men forcibly took her to an under-construction building nearby. There. they took turns at raping her until around 11pm, when they let her go.
The victim reached home around 11:30pm told her family, and her brother-in-law rushed her to Uttara West police station. There, the victim filed a case against her co-worker and his two cohorts, and later police sent her to the OCC.
Police have detained four people in connection with the rape, including the caretaker of the under-construction building, but the main accused are still in hiding, said Inspector (investigation) Biplab Kishor Shil of Uttara West police station.
However, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has detained a man with the same name as the victim's co-worker.
RAB 1 Commanding Officer Lt Col Tuhin Mohammad Masud told the Dhaka Tribune that the man was detained for interrogation regarding the rape.
Police said the victim did not tell her family about the rape at first, saying she had fallen from the second floor of a building to explain her injuries. But when her family attempted to take her to the DMCH, she told them the truth.
Police further said one of the guards at the building where she was raped saw her coming down on the night of the incident.
But the guard said the victim had told him she had been harassed when he asked her what was wrong.
Meanwhile, the store authorities yesterday released a statement strongly condemning the incident and said they would lend all their support to help police with the case.
However, the statement said the victim was an employee of New Max Security Limited agency.
