Staff Reporter :
A rape-convict got married with the victim at the Rajshahi Central Jail gate on Saturday.
The Jail authority arranged the marriage ceremony as per the desire of the both plaintiff and accused after an order from the High Court.
At least 14 members of two families, including the bride, came to the jail gate at noon for the wedding.
Members of the local Union Parishad (UP) were also present at that time. Even they all were accompanied by the eight-year-old son of a rape victim.
The convict, Prodip Khalko (30), of Chaitanyapur village in Rajshahi’s Godagari upazila has been serving life-term for last eight years in the rape case. In 2012, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The accused’s lawyer recently applied for bail in the high court. The rape victim (22) told the court of them no objection to the marriage if the accused is granted bail. The court, however, ordered the jail authority to arrange marriage for them.
As part of wedding, Hindu marriage registrar Krishna Devi and priest Parimal Chakraborty were present at the event. Later the bridegroom was made present from the prison after the bride arrived.
Then the marriage ceremony started at noon in the presence of Senior Jail Superintendent Subrata Kumar Bala.
At the end of the marriage ceremony, the senior jail super gave a new sari to the bride, offering sweets to everyone of the both families. The bride and her groom have expressed their satisfaction over the matter.
Earlier the High Court has asked the Rajshahi Jail authorities to arrange the marriage of a convict, who was sentenced to life term in 2012 in a rape case, with the victim woman at the jail gate.
A HC Bench of Justices M Enayetur Rahim and Md Mostafizur Rahman passed the order on 22 October of the year following the consent of the families of both the convict and the rape victim.
According to the case statement, convict Dilip Khalko, a resident of Godagari upazila, had an love affair with his 14-year-old maternal cousin.
At one stage of their relationship, they developed a physical relation on February 25, 2011, which subsequently made the teenage girl pregnant. Knowing it, Dilip refused to marry her.
Later on October 23, 2011 the rape victim girl filed a rape case with Godagari Police Station against Dilip Khalko .
On June 12, 2012, a Women and Children Repression Prevention tribunal sentenced Dilip to life term imprisonment in the case and fined him Tk 50,000. Since then he has been in jail.
