Rejoinder, our reply
Dinajpur police sent a rejoinder on April 11, 2018 to a report published in The Daily Star on February 5 under the headline “Why police so ruthless to us?” also an editorial titled “Double victimisation of a rape survivour!” on February 6.
The report quoted an 18-year-old woman as saying that she had lodged a case accusing her neighbour of raping her. But police delayed the investigation and later mounted pressure on her family to withdraw the case and reach an out-of-court settlement. As the family did not agree, police arrested the victim's own brother.
The rejoinder, signed by Ruhul Amin, senior assistant superintendent of police in Dinajpur, states that as per the FIR lodged with Bochaganj Police Station on June 6, 2017, police arrested the accused Paritosh Chandra Devsharma.
It added that the probe was delayed for the sake of scientific investigation.
Police had to wait until the woman, who was pregnant at the time, delivered her baby, to be able to verify the allegation against Paritosh. Police later took DNA samples of the woman, the infant, and Paritosh. It was confirmed from the DNA test that Paritosh was not the biological father.
During investigation, Abu Taleb, the investigation officer “unearthed circumstantial evidence” and got concrete information that proved involvement of the woman's brother in the act.
“Accordingly, we had no other way but to follow the new line of investigation by trumping up, the charge against the victim's brother. We duly followed every step in lawful directions. We then talked to the new accused, who came up with his admission in this rape case. On the following day, Pradip confessed his role in the court admitting his guilt,” the rejoinder reads.
Before coming to a conclusion, police again resorted to DNA test of the new accused, which confirmed him as the biological father of the child.
The rejoinder said police pressed charges against the brother of the woman and recommended the acquittal of Paritosh.
The rejoinder added that police neither put any pressure on the victim to withdraw the case, nor did they suggest an out-of-court settlement.
Our reply
This newspaper published the report based on a press conference held at Dinajpur Press Club on February 4 organised by the victim's family.
The victim herself read out the statement at the press conference. She said her brother was innocent and her neighbour Paritosh had raped her.
The woman said police arrested her brother Pradip Chandra Devsharma although she accused her neighbour Parithosh Chandra Devsharma.
Before publishing the report, The Daily Star correspondent contacted Abdur Rouf, officer-in-charge of Bochaganj Police Station and Abu Taleb, investigation officer. Bothe the officers said they would not talk in details about the allegations against them.
The Daily Star correspondent also tried to talk with Abu Taleb about the DNA report, but he did not comment on either.
Police also did not provide any documents to prove that victim's brother was indeed the biological father of victim's baby, who died last October.