University student sent to jail on rape charge
A university student in Rajshahi was shown arrested and sent to jail on Thursday after being accused in a rape case as he refused to marry the girl he was having an affair with.
The incident took place three days after both were taken into police custody.
The first-year student of Rajshahi New Degree Government College under National University started a relationship with the HSC-passed girl of Rangpur on Facebook around six months back, said Rezaul Hossain, officer-in-charge of Paba police station.
He said on Tuesday afternoon, the girl went to his home in Paba upazila and denied to leave the house until they got married.
When the boy’s father called police at night, law enforcers took both of them to Paba Police Station, said the OC. Police questioned and kept them in custody until Thursday morning. Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP) then took both of them to Rangpur.
At Tajhat Police Station, the girl filed a rape case the same day. She alleged that the boy, with a promise to marry her, “raped” her in Rangpur on June 16, said Sub-inspector Anwar Hossain of the police station.
Denying the allegation, the boy said he has never been to Rangpur until then, the SI said.
He also said his relationship with the girl was limited to Facebook and they had exchanged gifts through courier services, the police official added.
The young man’s father told The Daily Star yesterday that his son informed him about his Facebook affair earlier and said he had stopped contacting her a while back as she started pressurising him to marry her.
“I called police to get help, instead they arrested my son without a warrant. I suspect my son is being victimised for certain reasons,” he alleged. He did not want to elaborate further on the issue.
“What surprised me is that police showed much interest in sending him to jail. They took him in custody on Tuesday, waited for two days then travelled to Rangpur to hand him over to Rangpur police for taking legal actions against him,” he said.
Contacted, Prof Abdur Rahim of law and justice department of Rajshahi University said rape allegations have to be handled sensitively. There are chances of victimising people if law enforcers do not play their roles as per law.
In this case, police played a prompt role in arresting the youth without a warrant, and not following the law of producing an arrestee before a court within 24 hours of arrest, he said.
“If the boy turns out to be innocent as he is claiming, police’s role should obviously be under question,” he said.
Asked about the arrest, OC Rezaul Hossain said he did what his seniors told him to do. “I just followed orders,” he added.
Contacted, Hemayetul Islam, a deputy commissioner of RMP, said police decided to arrest the boy when the girl brought the rape allegations against him.
“We primarily found truth in her allegation that they were having an affair on Facebook. We took them to Rangpur so that police can investigate further,” he told this correspondent.
He said police showed him arrested on Thursday morning after primary interrogation. He was produced before a Rangpur court in the afternoon and was sent to a Rangpur jail.
Asked about the “irregularities” in arresting the boy and taking him to Rangpur, the deputy commissioner claimed that no illegal action was taken in this regard.
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