Investigate again
A Dhaka court yesterday ordered Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to further investigate the case filed in connection with sexual harassment of some women during the Pahela Baishakh celebrations on the Dhaka University campus last year.
Judge Jayasri Samaddar of the Third Tribunal for Prevention of Women and Children Repression passed the order, directing the PBI to submit a report by March 23.
The order came after Public Prosecutor Mahmuda Akhter yesterday filed a no-confidence petition with the court against the final report submitted by the Detective Branch of police on December 24 last year.
Detectives in the probe report said none of the offenders could be identified or arrested.
Earlier on January 27, the DB picked up Md Kamal Hossain, one of the suspects, from a house in the capital's Chawkbazar. According to detectives, the arrestee during primary interrogation confessed to his involvement in the sexual harassment. He was later placed on two-day remand for interrogation.
Kamal is among the eight people identified from CCTV footages of the incident, said police.
Police on January 31 produced Kamal before a Dhaka magistrate for recording his confessional statement. But he refused to confess and was later sent to jail.
At least 20 women were sexually harassed in the span of an hour, allegedly under the nose of law enforcers, by a group of rowdy youths in the evening of April 14 last year.
The incident sparked widespread protest across the country, with people from all quarters condemning the incident and demanding immediate arrest of the culprits.
Shahbagh police on April 15 last year filed a case in this connection. Police on May 17 declared a reward of Tk 1 lakh for capture of each of the eight suspects.
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