Pahela Baishakh: Many culprits, only one faces trial

The Police Bureau of Investigation yesterday pressed charges against the lone arrestee in the case filed over sexual assault on women during last year's Pahela Baishakh celebration.

Though the charge sheet mentioned only Mohammad Kamal, arrested by detectives on January 27, as having assaulted women on the day, investigation officer Abdur Razzak said, the names of seven others identified through video footage would be included in it if law enforcers could arrest them. 

At least 20 women were sexually assaulted in an hour, allegedly under the nose of police, by a group of rowdy youths on the evening of April 14 last year.

The incident sparked a wave of protest across the country with people from all quarters condemning it and demanding immediate arrest of the culprits.

“We have identified Kamal who himself admitted to being on the Dhaka University campus that day,” Banaj Kumar Majumder, chief of the PBI, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Police have got the panjabi, which Kamal wore on the day of the incident, from his Old Dhaka residence, he added.

The PBI, a special investigation agency of police, was given the charge of the case on February 23 after Public Prosecutor Mahmuda Akhter filed a no-confidence petition with the court against the final report submitted by the Detective Branch of police in December last year.

A month after the submission of the final report, detectives, however, arrested Kamal at his residence in the capital's Chawk Bazar area and filed an application with another Dhaka court seeking revival of the sexual assault case.

Witnesses said although a number of police personnel were standing nearby at the time of the incident, they did nothing to stop it. Moreover, one officer released two of the culprits who had been caught and handed over to him by public.

For days, police kept denying that women had been sexually assaulted.

On April 18 last year, police for the first time acknowledged the sexual harassment of women.

Later, they released photos of the eight youths, who allegedly carried out the assault, and declared reward of Tk 1 lakh for information about each of them. They were identified from the footage of CCTV cameras installed around the scene.

A police inquiry team also recommended action against three officers -- Inspector Saidul Haque Bhuiyan, Sub-inspector Ashraful Islam and Assistant Commissioner Shahidur Rahman -- for negligence in duty.

Initially Shahbagh police were investigating the case that was transferred to the DB first and then PBI.