Housewife gang-raped, husband ‘killed’

A man was arrested yesterday morning on charge of gang-raping a woman in Jamalpur Sadar upazila’s Ramkrishnapur village on Friday night.

The woman, who is now under treatment at Jamalpur General Hospital, filed a rape case against three named and two unnamed accused with Sadar police station on Monday.

The accused are Sanuar Hossain, 35, Shaon, 25 and Rafiz Uddin, 40. All three of them are neighbours of the woman.

According to the case statement, when the woman got out of her home around 8:00pm on Friday, Sanuar, along with Shaon and Rafiz, took her to a nearby bamboo cluster and raped her.

Then they tied her to a tree and beat her up before confining her to Sanuar’s room, said the statement.

She also alleged that they also murdered her husband.

The woman told journalists at the hospital on Monday night that when her husband rushed to Sanuar’s home to rescue her, the three men allegedly killed him and hung his body to a tree. They then told the woman that her husband hung and killed himself.

Police on Saturday recovered the body and rescued the woman from a passage between Sanuar’s house and another neighbouring house, said, Inspector Rashedul Hasan, officer-in-charge (investigation) of Sadar police station and also investigation officer of the case.

He added that the criminals had fled when they sensed police presence.

The body was sent to Jamalpur General Hospital morgue for autopsy and an unnatural death case was filed with the police station, said Inspector Rashedul.

Police told the media that the husband died by suicide after hearing that his wife was raped.

Meanwhile, Shaon was arrested early yesterday, the IO said.

Yesterday morning, a three-member body, headed by the hospital’s gynaecologist Fakria Alam, conducted a medical test on the woman, said Prafulla Kumar Shaha, assistant director of the hospital.

“Injury marks were found in different parts of the victim’s body,” he added.

“The reason behind the [husband’s] death will be known after the autopsy report is received,” said Salemuzzaman, officer-in-charge of Sadar Police Station, adding, “We are investigating the incident and trying to arrest the two others accused.”