SEXUAL HARASSMENT: JUSTICE PENDING
The recent Pahela Baisakh incident has left everyone angry, disgusted, upset, shocked, and scared. The question arises - will our law enforcing authorities consider this as yet another isolated incident of sexual harassment and forget about it? Let's remember a few similar incidents from the past, that the authorities had decided to ignore and forget.
One remembers the horrific incident from the night of December 31, 1999 - when Badhan was molested on the Dhaka University campus. Badhan recorded a criminal case against the perpetrators- Tutul, Chandan and Rassel. In the verdict, the court observed that the prosecution could not prove the charges against the accused beyond reasonable doubt, despite national dailies publishing photographs of the incident the very next day.
Yet another case that made headlines was that of Farzana Akter who was molested by police officials inside the Police Club at the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court premises back in May 2012.
The victim's mother was finally allowed to file a case against five people including two police officials for sexually harassing her daughter. However, nothing happened. The case is still trapped in another sloth investigation process.
“The investigation is still going on. In fact the CID is now looking into this matter,” comments Advocate Nina Goswami. “But the problem is that whenever this kind of incident occurs, the people who are in charge of the investigation inevitably tend to hide and deny information making it easy for the perpetrators to walk free.”
What entitles men to act so heinously is a wholly different story. However, as long as they know they will get away with playing this touch and run game in broad daylight in front of thousands, there will be no end to these incidents.
Four days after the Pahela Baishakh incident, the police finally admitted 'something happening' in the Dhaka
University area.
One wonders how long it will take to punish the perpetrators – another four months or four years?
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