Pornography case: Jubo Odhikar Parishad leader arrested

Md Abdul Wakil, president of Jubo Odhikar Parishad's Rajshahi district unit, has been arrested in a pornography case filed with Paltan Police Station in Dhaka, said the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police.

A special team of CID arrested him at his residence in Rajshahi city's Dasmari area on Saturday, read a CID press release issued yesterday.

The statement comes three days after Wakil's family claimed he was picked up from home by a team of plainclothes policemen on Thursday around 6:00am.

According to the CID press release, they received allegations of child abuse against Wakil, who confessed during a primary interrogation.

Wakil, 33, is also a teacher at Ashraf Memorial Model School in the Katakhali area of Rajshahi city.

Md Arif Hossain, the school's headmaster, filed the case against Wakil under the Pornography Control Act, 2012, said the release.

However, when contacted, headmaster Arif Hossain said he only filed the case because he was told to do so by the CID after he was taken to Dhaka to identify Wakil.

"I'm not aware of any allegations of child abuse against Wakil. I don't know any of the victims who brought the allegations against him."

Meanwhile, Wakil's family members and political associates refuted the allegations of child abuse brought against him.

His father, Abul Hamid, said that after plainclothes policemen picked up Wakil from their home, they showed him a pornographic video and told him that Wakil was behind making the video.

Meanwhile, Wakil's wife, Syamoli Khatun, said the plainclothes men told her that he was being taken away over a matter regarding his school.

According to local leaders of the Jubo Odhikar Parishad, Wakil actively took part in an anti-India campaign and criticised the government on various occasions on social media under the name of "KH Rasel".

According to the CID press release, Wakil sexually assaulted at least 30 underage schoolchildren in Rajshahi city under the pretext of tutoring them. He also recorded videos of his sexual assaults and stored them on his mobile phone, pen drives, and external hard drives.

US-based child protection organisation, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), found those videos of child abuse online and notified CID of the contents.

When CID's criminal intelligence team started investigating the matter, many victims and their guardians, wishing anonymity, brought allegations of child abuse against Wakil, the release added.

The release also added that Wakil confessed during a primary interrogation, saying that he started abusing children when he was an honours student and taught at a coaching centre in Rajshahi city.