Staff Reporter :
Nine persons were sued under Women and Children Repression Prevention Act on charge of committing gang-rape of a 35-year old mother of four children for voting ‘Sheaf of Paddy’ at Char Jubilee Union in Subarnachar upazila of Noakhali district on Monday.
But the list of the accused did not include the name of a former Union Parishad member, who, according to the victim, allegedly ordered his men to rape the victim.”
The victim’s husband, who filed the case, told the media on Tuesday that police wrote the First Information Report and asked him to sign it. “I am illiterate … I could not read what was written in it. I just signed,” the complainant alleged.
While undergoing treatment at Noakhali General Hospital on Monday, the victim, a mother of four, said that 10 to 12 accomplices of Ruhul Amin raped her for voting for “Sheaf of Paddy”, the electoral symbol of the BNP, in Sunday’s national polls.
Ruhul, who claimed to be Publicity Affairs Secretary of Subarnachar Awami League, refuted the allegations on Monday.
The complainant said that a police team led by Inspector (Investigation) Md Ibrahim Khalil took him and his son to Char Jabbar Police Station around 9:00pm on Monday.
“I told police that former member of Char Jubilee Union Parishad Ruhul Amin ordered his accomplices to rape my wife as she voted for ‘Sheaf of Paddy’.
“But in the case statement, police neither mentioned Ruhul Amin’s name, nor the reason of the rape,” he added.
Contacted, Sub-Inspector of Police Station and Investigation Officer (IO) of the case, said the complainant informed them that the accused were supporters of ex-UP member Ruhul.
Asked why Ruhul’s name was not there in the case statement, the IO claimed that the complainant himself did not mention Ruhul’s name.
Meanwhile, police arrested accused Md Swapan Mia, 35, on Tuesday while another accused Badsha Alam alias Basu, 35 on Monday night.
The other accused are Md Sohel, 35, Hanif, 30, Chowdhury, 25, Bechu, 25, Basu, 40, Abul, 40, Mosharraf, 35, and Salauddin, 35. They are from Maddhya Bagya village in Subarnachar.
According to the case statement, around 12:30am on Monday, Salauddin, a neighbour of the complainant, went to his house and called him by name. As the complainant’s wife opened the door, the accused forcibly entered the house and started beating him and his wife as a sequel to previous enmity, it said.
At one stage, the accused tied hands and legs of the complainant and his children, and gagged them. Then they took his wife to a nearby pondside and gang-raped her, mentioned the statement.
Before leaving, the accused vandalised the tin fence of the complainant’s house. Later, the complainant freed himself and found his wife near the pond.
National Human Rights Commission Chairman Kazi Reazul Hoque on Monday said they would investigate the incident if the Election Commission, which has the authority to deal with it, fails to do so.
Superintendent of Noakhali General Hospital Dr Md Khalil Ullah said the medical test report on the victim was yet to be available.
