Court Correspondent :
A Dhaka court on Monday sent Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST) teacher Mahfuzur Rashid Ferdous to the jail, rejecting his bail plea in a case filed in connection with his sexual harassment of female students of the university.
Metropolitan Magistrate Amirul Haider Chowdhury of Dhaka passed the order when Saidur Rahman, a counsel of the accused teacher, filed a petition seeking his bail. Earlier, on May 4, another court of Dhaka placed Mahfuzur Rashid on a two-day remand rejecting his bail petition in the case. On expiry of the remand, Magistrate Kazi Kamrul Islam of the court recorded the confessional statement of Mahfuzur Rashid on May 8 Under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code. After rcording the statement, the court passed the order to send him to jail.
On May 5, five female students of the university, who fell victim to sexual harassment by teacher Ferdous, testified to several Dhaka courts. Police arrested Ferdous, an Associate Professor of the Department of EEE, from his apartment in the city’s Eskaton area on May 4 in a case filed by Asadullah Al Sayem, brother of a victim. According to the case, on March 2, Ferdous took an EEE first year student to his flat where he sexually harassed her and took indecent pictures of the student and threatened her that the pictures would be uploaded on the internet if she discloses it.
Similarly, he harassed two other female students of his department on November 22, 2015 and on February 19, 2016 at his house and his chamber at the university, the case statement said.
