Sexual offender lands in jail as girl fights back

A youth has landed in prison on the charge of sexual harassment after the victim caught him and took him to police in Bogura town on Tuesday.

The girl said she was groped by Abid, 19, a local delinquent, when she was aboard a rickshaw in Kathaltali area. Police said the youth lives in Nishindhara area and was earlier taken to the police station for pick-pocketing.

The 18-year-old victim said, “On Tuesday I was going to a bookshop in Kathaltali with one of my friends. Our rickshaw was stuck in a traffic jam, and it was around 7:00pm. Suddenly I felt someone groping me. I caught his hand right away.

 “After getting down from the rickshaw, I shouted at him 'why did you touch me'? But I was surprised to see he had not regret. He looked at me as if I were the one who did something wrong.”

The girl, who passed HSC exams this year and is a university admission candidate, was even more surprised at the reply when she told him, “I will take you to the police station.”

“'Go on', he said to my face.”

In the meantime, a crowd of onlookers and shopkeepers caught him. “They were about to beat him, but I asked them not to. If I had let them do it, he would get sympathy of police and would escape the legal punishment,” she said.

With the help of the people, the girl took him to Bogura Sadar Police Station and filed a case, and he was put in the lock-up.

SM Badiuzzaman, officer-in-charge of the police station, said, “Abid is a local delinquent. Once he was taken to this police station for pick-pocketing.”

He said a case was filed against him under the women and children repression prevention act on Wednesday, and the court sent him to jail the same day.

Talking to The Daily Star, the girl said she demands exemplary punishment for the criminal to ensure safety of women in public places. “I will do everything that needs to be done to make sure he gets the punishment.”

She said, “Maybe I will be a mother someday, and it may be a girl. I won't teach her to draw back in fear from sexual offenders. I will teach her to fight.”

Recalling a past incident, she said she first faced sexual harassment when in fifth grade. “This was a mental trauma, and I was haunted by it. This was when I resolved to fight back and raise my voice against gender violence.”