<i>Arbitration's bid to save rapist, victim's father sues culprit</i>

A village arbitration on Sunday fined a man Tk 15,000 on rape charge and asked the teenage victim's family to withdraw the case filed with a court in the district.
According to the locals, Md. Aminul Islam, 28, son of Md. Abdul Jabbar of Dalbari village under Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur raped the 15-year-old girl on November 20 evening after confining her to a house.
Later, Roop Kumar, husband of a ward member of Chandipur union parishad tried to settle the matter locally holding back the victim's family from filing any case against Aminul, a married man of the same locality.
However, the father of the rape victim filed a case with Parbatipur police station, accusing Aminul Islam under Women and Children Repression and Prevention Act on November 26, six days into the incident, said the family members.
Persuaded by the rapist, Chandra Kanta Roy, son of Tarani Kanta Roy, a local ruling party activist forced the rape victim's parents to sit with them and resolve the matter amicably in the evening of Sunday, locals said
Chandra also compelled the victim's family members to accept Tk 15,000 as “compensation”, they said.
The father of the victim said he received the amount under duress, while Chandra Kanta Roy claimed that the victim's parents willingly accepted the money.
“I resolved the case in exchange for Tk 15,000,” Chandra said.
Hossain Ali, Sub-Inspector at Parbatipur police station and Investigation Officer (IO) of the case said he had heard about the settlement.
“But any case filed under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act cannot be resolved by a village arbitration,” he said.
“We will arrest the criminal as soon as possible,” he added.