Rape of Teen: IGP, DMP AC contradict on age of accused
Inspector General of Police Benazir Ahmed yesterday said what happened in Kalabagan was out-and-out a crime.
However, the IGP said, "Rape took place there, death was caused … but both are children as per our law."
In the case filed by the father of the 17-year-old O-level student who was raped before her death on Thursday at a building in Dhaka's Kalabagan area, the lone accused Fardin Iftekhar Dihan's age is mentioned as 18 years old.
Abul Hasan, assistant commissioner of Newmarket Zone of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, even said Dihan was adult, not a child, and if needed they would conduct tests to ascertain his age.
The IGP said children cannot be kept in jail, taken into police custody without a probation officer and cannot be sentenced to jail by mobile courts. But, there are very few probation officers, correction centres and children courts, said the IGP pointing to problems in tackling teenage gang culture, drug abuse, and other crimes.
He was speaking at a programme at Rab Headquarters organised to mark the celebration of Bangabandhu's birth centenary.
On Sunday, the mother of the 17-year-old victim said an invisible power was trying to protect the man accused of raping her daughter.
"Considering everything, it seems to us that they [the accused] have been getting special privileges since the beginning," the grieving mother had told The Daily Star.
The IGP said, "Parents have to be aware where their children go, what they do and who they mingle with. Parents have to take this responsibility.
"Why did you give birth to your babies if you can't take the responsibilities? It is your social, moral and religious duty," the police chief said.
Meanwhile, police yesterday picked up a security guard of the building, where the incident took place, for interrogation.
Dulal, aged about 45, was under police surveillance. Police took him into custody after he came to the building around noon, said Shazzadur Rahman, deputy commissioner (Ramna Division) of DMP.
"We are interrogating him to know what he saw on that day. We will verify the information gleaned from him…," said the DC.
Police earlier said they were looking for him as he helped the lone accused, Dihan, carry the victim out of the building and that he might know something.
A medical officer and a staffer of Anwar Khan Medical College Hospital, where the girl was taken first, said Dihan along with another young man brought the girl in a car.
A Dhaka court on Sunday allowed police to conduct a DNA test of Dihan and the blood stains on the victim's cloths.
On January 8, Dihan gave a statement before a magistrate after which he was sent to jail.
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