Rape victim’s family members beaten up
Family members of the RS Jute Processing Mill rape victim were allegedly beaten up on Friday for refusing Tk 70,000 from the perpetrator and her hand in marriage to settle the issue.
The victim, aged about 15, was on her night shift duty at the jute factory when three teenage boys, who were also employees of RS Jute Processing Mill, picked her up and took her to one of the rooms in the factory, according to the victim's family and police sources.
One of the teens violated her while the other two filmed the incident, according to the victim, who is also physically challenged.
The victim, a resident of ward 7 of Haragachh Municipality area in Kaunia upazila of Rangpur, left the factory before her shift ended on Wednesday morning and informed her mother of the incident.
Her mother relayed the event to their relatives, who informed the matter to Zahidul Islam Biplob, the factory manager, that day.
Biplob accosted the teenagers, who acknowledged the incident.
In the meantime, the accused rapist's family made a proposal for marriage to the victim, who recently lost her father. The victim's family turned down the proposal.
Afterwards, Nazrul Islam, a former councillor of the ward, had arranged an arbitration, which took place at the factory on Friday evening in the presence of the relatives of both the victim and the accused rapist as well as officials of RS Jute Processing Mill.
Islam offered Tk 70,000 to the victim's family to settle the matter. But, her sister and maternal uncle refused to take the amount.
This prompted Islam and his goons to beat them up on the spot.
The victim's family members made a call to the national helpline 999 for help. The person on the helpline advised them to go to the local police station to file the case.
Accordingly, they filed the case against four persons with the Haragachh police station later in the evening.
Islam told local journalists he arranged the arbitration after the rape victim's family came to him for help. He admitted he slapped the victim's relatives several times as they were not heeding the judgement of the arbitration.
Contacted, Biplob acknowledged that an incident was taken place at the factory in the early hours of Wednesday, but he denied arranging any arbitration.
The arbitration took place outside of the factory premises, he said.
A forensic test of the victim would be conducted, said Shawkat Ali, the officer-in-charge of the Haragachh police station. Besides, the police are trying to arrest the accused.
Comments