Man held on rape charge

A man was arrested yesterday on the charge of raping his nephew’s wife in Dacope upazila of Khulna the day before.

The woman’s mother-in-law filed a rape case with Dacope Police Station, said Shafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of the police station.

“We arrested the accused, Saiful Gazi, from Nalian area,” he added.

The mother-in-law said his son, the woman’s husband, a day labourer, has been in jail for the last nine days in a loan default case. “On Friday morning, in an attempt to release my son, we went to see the local UP chairman,” she said.

Meantime, her daughter-in-law was home alone as she was three months pregnant. At that time, Saiful went to the house and raped her, she said.

“After we heard about the matter from her, we took her to Khulna Medical College Hospital,” she said.

Anjan Kumar Chakraborty, coordinator of one-stop crisis centre at KMCH, said the woman is being treated at the centre.

Meanwhile, her father-in-law alleged that relatives of the accused, who is his cousin, are threatening him to withdraw the case.

Asked, the OC said they are looking into the matter.

Contacted, UP Chairman Masum Ali Fakir said the mother-in-law of the woman came to see him about her son. “I told her to take steps as per law, that’s it.”