A 15-year-old girl has been gang-raped in Lalmonirhat amid a countrywide outrage against rape and violence against women.
The incident came to light on Friday. The rape survivor is currently in police custody.
One of the rape suspects has been arrested. Police and the victim identified him as Rocky, a resident of Kaliganj upazila's Tushbhandar area and son of Rajab Ali. He is an autorickshaw driver.
The rape survivor said local leaders realized a hefty fine from the rapists but gave her only enough money to go back home and threatened her.
She said she was returning to Kawnia from Patgram on Tuesday evening by inter-city Kortoa Express train. She got down at Kaliganj's Kakina station for refreshments and missed the train.
It is here that Rocky approached her and convinced her to travel with him on an autorickshaw to Kawnia.
Instead of heading to Kawnia, Rocky took a detour and around midnight stopped near a water pump where he raped her with three of his accomplices.
They let her go after she promised not to disclose the incident. The clearly disoriented victim was loitering in the area when locals approached her. When she told them about her ordeal, they took her to the house of a village policeman.
On Thursday night, the local leaders held a kangaroo court and realized a large sum of money from the rapists after the victim identified them.
Instead of giving her the money, the men gave her Tk 2,000 for travel and medical expense and sent her out. She went to Kaliganj Press Club on Friday noon with the help of locals.
From there, police took the victim into custody. She filed a case against four people around 9pm.
"We've arrested one of the accused," Kaliganj police station Officer-in-Charge Forhad Hossain said. "We're trying to arrest the rest."
