Protesting harassment, which prompted a school girl to commit suicide, several hundred teachers, students and locals laid a siege to the house of an alleged stalker at Nandipara in the city on Sunday.
The protesters also formed a human chain to press home their demand for immediate arrest and exemplary punishment to the stalker and his associates, police said.
Mostafiz Bhuiyan, Khilgaon Police Station’s Officer-in-Charge (OC) said that that they were yet to arrest anyone in this regard as Shimul, his parents and other family members went into hiding soon after the incident.
Shimul used to stalk Umme Kulsum Ritu, 14, a Class-IX student at East Point Education School and College in Khilgaon, on her way to the institution, her family members and classmates alleged.
Police said Shimul on Saturday went to the school to look for the girl and failing to find her there, he then went to her house. The stalker hurled abusive words at the girl through a window as she was alone at the house at noon, the family members alleged.
Later in the evening, he along with his three to four accomplices went to the house again and spread false propaganda against the girl among her family members and neighbours. Being unable to bear the harassment, Ritu took poison locking the door of her room from inside, her grandmother Fatema Begum said. Family members and locals whisked off Rita to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) where doctors declared her dead.
Both garment workers, victim’s father Ashik Mandal and mother Sathi Akhter had been at workplaces when Ritu poisoned herself. “He had long been stalking my daughter,” the victim’s father said. A case was filed with the police station in this connection.
