‘Rape’ of Teen Girl: Mother holds sit-in for justice

A mother in Bogura held an hourlong sit-in yesterday, demanding justice for her teenage daughter, who was allegedly raped last year.

During her protest from 11:00am to 12:00pm on the footpath in the district's Satmatha area, the mother demanded that a police officer be named in the case for "destroying the evidence" to protect the accused.

A man named Muraduzzaman, 48, allegedly raped her ninth-grader daughter in March last year.

"The accused had even captured video of the rape. Subsequently, he raped my daughter multiple times threatening to release the video on social media," said the mother.

The suspect, who was a tenant at her house, was arrested after the mother filed a case, and is now on bail.

According to the mother, police had seized the mobile phone that had the video.

"The officer-in-charge [Kripa Sindhu Bala] demanded Tk 5 to 7 lakh from me. I paid Tk 1 lakh. As I could not pay the rest, he deleted the video from the mobile phone," the mother alleged.

Kripa Sindhu, now OC of Pabna Sadar Police Station, dismissed the allegation. 

Muraduzzaman also denied the rape allegation, and said the case against him is false.  

After the mother lodged a formal complaint against the OC in August last year, the case was handed over to the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI).

"Kripa Sindhu Bala must be included in the chargesheet. But we have come to know that senior PBI officials are trying to protect him," the mother told reporters during the sit-in.

On July 10 this year, she met the Inspector General of Police to demand justice.

Kazi Ehshanul Kabir, superintendent of police of PBI's Bogura office, said their departmental investigation did not find any evidence that the OC destroyed the video.

"We have already sent the report to the PBI headquarters," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

He said their investigation into the rape case is ongoing. "We will complete it soon."