Rape accused let go on technicality
Officer-in-charge of Dhunat Police Station freed a rape accused, who is a member of Dhunat upazila unit Awami League, four hours after he was arrested on Friday night.
OC Khan Mohammad Erfan said Md Al-Helal, 42, of Pirhati village of the upazila, was released as the address of the accused in the warrant was mentioned wrongly. In the warrant, it was said Helal was from Shyamgati instead of Pirhati village.
However, the rape victim's relatives alleged that the police officer released Helal after taking bribes, giving excuse of wrong address in the warrant. But the OC refuted the allegation.
They also alleged that when the rape incident happened in June last year, the same police officer was in-charge of Sherpur Police Station. He did not even let the victim file the case with the police station as the accused was an influential person. Later, the victim's family lodged the case with a Bogra court.
According to the case statement, on June 4 last year, Helal went to the victim's house in a village under Sherpur upazila, adjacent to Dhunat upazila, and raped the 18-year-old girl when her parents were out.
Hearing the victim's screams, locals caught Helal and handed him over to Sherpur police.
At that time, OC Erfan did not register the case; rather tried to cover up the incident, the victim's relatives alleged.
On June 7 last year, the victim's family filed the case against Helal with the Bogra Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-2. It issued the arrest warrant for Helal on July 25 this year.
Following the warrant, Dhunat police arrested Helal in Mathura Bazar area around 6:30pm on Friday, but freed him around 10:00pm.
After the rape, the accused had offered the victim's mother Tk 18,000 so that no case was filed against him, said a relative of the victim, seeking anonymity.
Talking to this correspondent, Helal said he was not involved in the rape, but he was made accused in the case. He was also forced to give some money to the victim's mother after village arbitration on condition that he was not accused in the case.
Ali Ashraf Bhuiyan, superintendent of Bogra police, told The Daily Star that the man was released as his address was not in the warrant.
Asked about taking bribes by OC Erfan, the SP said, “If something was wrong, we would investigate it.”
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