Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has submitted a charge sheet against two alleged rapists in connection with the gang-rape of an indigenous (Garo) woman at a runing microbus in the capital.
The charge-sheeted two accused are Ashraf Khan alias Tushar and Jahidul Islam Lavlu.
Azmila Nasren Chowdhury, assistant superintendent of police (ASP) of RAB and also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court on Sunday.
“The charge sheet would be produced before the magistrate on August 25 for taking the next course of action”, said Sub-inspector Md Jahaingir Hossain, the GRO of CMM court.
The GRO also said the rape allegations were found true against the two accused during the investigation. Twelve people were made prosecution witnesses in the charge sheet of the case.
According to the case documents, the victim, a tribal woman, worked as a salesperson for a clothing outlet at Jamuna Future Park in the capital.
On the night of May 21, the indigenous woman was dragged onto a microbus outside the shopping mall and she was raped in the running car.
The 21-year-old woman was dumped at Jashimuddin intersection in Uttara from the microbus after raping her.
A day after the incident, a case was filed with Batara police station where the victim mentioned that five people had ‘gang-raped’ her for over an hour that night.
On May 27, RAB arrested Jahidul Islam Lavlu at Gulshan-1 and Tushar from Patuakhali’s Kuakata in connection with the incident.
RAB also recovered the microbus which was using during the incident, from Banani in the city.
On May 28, the two arrestees were placed on 10-day remand by a Dhaka court in the case. Later, they gave confessional statement under 164 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) confessing the heinous crime.
Three people including security guard of arrested accused gave their statements before the magistrates under section 22 of Women and Children Repression Prevention Act 2000 in connection with the incident.
They are—Mahbub Hossain, security guard of Tushar’s house, Nurul Alam and Khokon Sardar.
