12 cops sued over sexual harassment
Twelve cops, including two OCs of two police stations in the capital, were sued yesterday over sexual harassment of two women.
They are among 16 people accused in two cases filed with two Dhaka courts under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.
The accused include three sub-inspectors, two assistant sub-inspectors, five constables and four other people.
A woman filed one of the cases with Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-3 in Dhaka. She accused Jatrabari OC Mazharul Islam, SI Osman Ali, and civilians Md Sohel, Miraz Ali and Md Zihad of attempted rape and extortion.
After hearing the complaint, Judge Jayasree Sammader of the tribunal took the case into cognisance.
The court asked the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Dhaka to conduct a judicial enquiry into the complaint.
According to the case statement, Miraz, Sohel and Zihad forcibly entered the complainant's home on Kajla New Road in the capital's Jatrabari area around 11:30pm on February 14 and attempted to rape her.
They also filmed the incident. As the complainant screamed for help, they threatened her that they would release the footage on social media.
At one stage, the plaintiff's husband came home. The three beat him up and took him away.
The complainant on February 20 went to Jatrabari Police Station to file a case over the attempted rape. Police on the same day detained Miraz, Sohel and Zihad.
The complainant said SI Osman demanded Tk 1 lakh for filing the case. He made the demand saying that the OC would not record the case if he was not given the money. Later, her husband gave the SI Tk 5,000.
The OC asked the plaintiff to settle the matter out of court. She said she came to know that police freed the detainees in exchange for a huge amount of money.
Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, OC Mazharul said, "The complainant neither came to me for filing a case nor contacted me over the phone."
He said a group of people had sued the previous two OCs of the police station for harassing them. He suspected that the same group accused him in the case.
SECOND CASE
Another woman from the capital's Dakshinkhan area filed the second case with the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-5 in Dhaka against Sikder Md Shamim Hossain, OC of Dakshinkhan Police Station, and 10 others over harassing her sexually.
The other accused are sub-inspectors Abdul Kadir and Arif Hossain, assistant sub-inspectors Abdul Rup and Nurul Islam, constables Monirul Islam, Jayen Uddin, Towfiq, Runa Akter, and Yeasmin Akter of the same police station, and the complainant's stepmother.
Judge Shamsun Nahar recorded the complainant's statement and asked the Police Bureau of Investigation to conduct an enquiry.
The complainant stated that OC Shamim and the other cops entered her house in Dakshinkhan's Ashkona Purbapara area on March 2 and sexually harassed her. The accused also assaulted her family members, including her husband and daughter.
She said her stepmother gave money to the policemen to "teach her a lesson" as she had enmity with her.
Despite repeated attempts, this newspaper could not reach OC Shamim over the phone for comments.
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