4 arrested over rape of 4th grader
Three days after a 13-year-old girl along with her dead newborn arrived at a police station and filed a rape case, police arrested the prime accused and three others from Jamalpur town yesterday.
At midnight on November 19, the fourth grader, daughter of a construction worker from Dalbari village in Dewanganj municipality in Jamalpur, gave birth to a baby girl that died on the night of November 21 (Thursday).
She went to Dewanganj Police Station carrying the dead baby the next day and filed the case against the four arrestees, alleging that her neighbour Raihan, 19, had raped her around nine months ago.
The other arrestees are Raihan’s father Habibur Rahman, mother Rina Begum and his paternal uncle Salahuddin.
According to the case statement, as the young girl was hiding in a room of a house in the neighbourhood while playing hide and seek with her playmates, Raihan entered the same room and raped her.
The girl did not disclose the matter to her parents later as Raihan had threatened her of dire consequences if she acted otherwise.
However, she opened up about the incident after her parents interrogated her following medical complications that she started to experience six months later, her father said.
He then approached Raihan’s father Habibur, a teacher at a government primary school, for securing a resolution of the matter and Habibur agreed to arrange marriage between the girl and Raihan.
Soon after the girl gave birth to the baby at Dewanganj Upazila Health Complex, condition of both deteriorated and they were transferred to Jamalpur General Hospital.
But when the girl’s father went to Habibur again after his daughter’s child died on Thursday, Habibur refused to arrange the marriage, said Faisal, sub-inspector of the police station and also investigation officer (IO) of the case, quoting the case statement.
Following the filing of the case on Friday, police took the dead baby to Jamalpur General Hospital and collected her DNA sample, said MM Mainul Islam, officer-in-charge of the police station.
The complainant’s father, while speaking with this correspondent, said his daughter was suffering from malnutrition due to the childbirth at a young age, but he could not afford to pay for necessary medications and nutritional food for her.
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