Mohammad Kamal, a small trader from Old Dhaka arrested on Wednesday for sexually assaulting women during the Pohela Boishakh celebrations last year, has claimed that he committed the crime unintentionally.
During interrogation in DB custody, Kamal said that he had gone to the TSC area of Dhaka University campus to celebrate the day.
Claiming himself innocent, the arrestee said that he had been trapped in the crowd at one point, and had physical contact with someone while trying to leave the place, Deputy Commissioner (south) of the Detective Branch of police Maksudur Rahman Khaled said quoting Kamal.
He was recognised by the police along with seven others from CCTV footage. It suggests that the arrestee was loitering in the area for over an hour and deliberately entered the crowd several times to get close to the victims.
Police said that Kamal had gone into hiding soon after the incident and returned home recently after shaving his beard. During the arrest, the DB police team also seized his panjabi.
He would be produced before a Dhaka court today in completion of his two-day remand.
On Thursday, the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal 3 set February 23 for hearing in the case, filed on April 15 last year. Police submitted final report in the case on December 13 failing to arrest any of the offenders.
According to media reports, at least 20 women and children were sexually assaulted by several gangs of stalkers in TSC and Matsya Bhaban areas on that day. Some youths of Bangladesh Chhatra Union caught two of the assaulters from near the Suhrawardy Udyan gate and handed them over to the police. But they were later released.
Earlier, police released two of the eight alleged attackers after they had gone to the police station along with a woman on July 7 last year. The woman claimed that she was a victim of sexual harassment on April 14, and that the duo were trying to save her from the offenders.
