Staff Reporter :
The High Court (HC) on Sunday ordered the government to exhume the body of Nargis Begum, who was allegedly killed after rape in India two months ago, to carry out autopsy.
The 32-year-old Nargis, hailed from Sonadanga of Khulna, was raped and killed by a group of criminals in Firozabad of Uttar Pradesh, India in March. She went to India with her daughter Kakoli and mother Anwara Begum for treatment on March 7.
According to Nargis’ mother, they left for New Delhi from Kolkata by a train on March 9. Midway through the journey, when they reached a station around 3:30am on the following day, some people deceived them saying that the train had arrived in New Delhi.
When they got off the train, the criminals separated Nargis from her mother and daughter. They took her away by a rickshaw and violated her before committing murder.
Later, Anwara Begum and Kakoli came to know from Sonadanga Police that Nargis was killed in India on March 19. They received the victim’s body the following day at Benapole. Hearing a writ petition, the bench of Justice Quazi-Reza-Ul-Huq and Justice Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman also asked the government to submit a post mortem report before it by June 16.
Advocate Alena Khan, Chief Executive of Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation, filed the writ petition on behalf of Nargis’ maternal aunt Rahela Begum.
The court also directed the concerned authorities to hand over all relevant documents regarding Nargis’ murder to Sonadanga Police Station in Khulna. The foreign and home secretaries have also been asked to submit all documents they received from the Indian authorities.
With the written order of the HC, the local administration of Khulna will exhume the body of Nargis for post mortem, Alina Khan said.
Uttar Pradesh police said they found the body of Nrgis near the rail track in Firozabad district in the second week of March. However, the chief of Uttar Pradesh police Pijush Sreebastab in an interview with BBC Bangla Service claimed Nargis was not raped. Referring to the autopsy report, carried out in India, he said the victim was run over by a train.
But, Laily Begum, who washed Nargis body, said the victim’s body bored several injury marks. “There were marks of hacking by sharp weapons on her body. Her left ankle was almost severed and two breasts were cut off,” she said.
