Kalpana Chakma: 20 years gone, case yet to be solved

Twenty years have passed since abduction of Kalpana Chakma, but the case has yet to be solved.

The investigation officer of the case has been changed several times, but each of them has failed to make any headway.

Following the previous instances, Sayed Tarikul Hasan, superintendent of police of Rangamati, submitted the final report of the case to a court on October 7.

The district police boss said the real culprits who kidnapped Kalpana could not be identified. If they found any new evidence, the case would be revived, he added.

Kalpana, the then organising secretary of the Hill Women's Federation (HWF), an organisation of indigenous Jumma women of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, was abducted from her Baghaichhari house in Rangamati on June 11, 1996.

She was taken at gunpoint by a group of men in the dark of the night.

It was reported that around 35 police officers have investigated the case as of 2015. In June 2014, Amena Begum, superintendent of police, missed the 11th deadline for submitting an investigation report to the court.

Earlier, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had investigated the case and submitted a report on September 26, 2012 without either identifying the abductors or tracing her whereabouts.

The counsels for the case's plaintiff Kalindi Kumar Chakma, elder brother of Kalpana, then pleaded for a further enquiry citing faults and limitations of the CID report.

Kalindi, who is a witness of the abduction of his sister, said he did not receive the final report of the case.

“As far as I know, my sister's abduction case did not see any progress and I demand justice,” he added.

Rejecting the final report, the HWF demanded a proper investigation into the abduction and trial of the culprits. Everybody knows who abducted Kalpana Chakma, but the report does not mention any name, it alleges.