Suspect on remand, protests on
The Detective Branch on a court order on Thursday started interrogating lone suspect Mohammed Majnu in connection with the rape of a Dhaka University student in the capital on Sunday night.
DB police also sent evidence to a DNA laboratory to ascertain his involvement in the offence.
Metropolitan magistrate Md Sharifuzzaman Ansari earlier on the day remanded Majnu to be interrogated in the police custody for seven days over the incident.
DB officials interviewed the victim at their office on the Minto Road after she was released from the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
During the interview, she identified her lost cell phone and power bank. She also detailed the cruelty she had experienced during the rape and how she managed to leave the scene.
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She described how she was kept under control by the suspect for hours.
The police investigators were examining the statements made by Majnu and others detained over the incident as they sent samples of evidence to the DNA laboratory at the Criminal Investigation Department to confirm the identities of the suspect and the victim.
DB deputy commissioner (north division) Mashiur Rahman said that they obtained detailed information about the incident and were examining those.
The suspect told us that he was near the Kurmitola General Hospital before the rape and targeted the victim after she got off the bus and while walking towards the Joarsahara bus stoppage, Mashiur said.
The DB officer said that they were checking out Majnu’s background.
Majnu told the investigators that he used to live in empty wagons around the nearby railway station and had ‘relations’ with many in the past, they said.
Mashiur also said that they examined Majnu’s condition and found him in a completely fine shape.
The suspect is carrying sexually transmitted diseases, said the interrogators.
Majnu was held on Tuesday by the Rapid Action Battalion.
Earlier, the victim was discharged from the Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Thursday noon after the doctors gave clearance.
She left the hospital’s one-stop crisis centre along with her family members after taking treatment for four days after the rape that sparked countrywide outrage.
On the day, hundreds of DU students continued their protests for the fourth day in a row against the rape and torture of the second-year female student of the university.
They repeated their demand for an exemplary punishment of the perpetrator so that none else could dare to think of committing such an act against women in the future.
The Bangladesh General Students’ Rights Protection Council brought out a procession from the Raju memorial sculpture demanding punishment of the rapist parading university streets before returning to the same point.
Addressing the protesters there, Dhaka University Central Students’ Union vice-president Nurul Haque Nur said that people now suspected that rapes these days were a result of the low credibility of law enforcers.
He further said that law enforcers would have to prove their credibility as general people would not allow any further drama and urged all to wage a social movement against all forms of injustice.
DU students on the day blockaded the TSC intersection and formed a human chain demanding justice for their fellow student.
The blockade caused a serious traffic gridlock in the Shahbagh and adjacent areas.
A group of female students performed a flash mob against the rape while another group of DU first-year students burnt an effigy of the rapist.
They demanded a speedy trial and an exemplary punishment of the rapist, urging the authorities concerned to bring about changes in the existing law and to prescribe capital punishment for the rapists.
Leaders of the Left Democratic Alliance, a combine of eight left-leaning political parties, at a rally in front of National Press Club in the city called on the government to take immediate steps to stop repression on women across the country. Addressing the rally, speakers said that the government failed to ensure good governance in the country and also to ensure security of the citizens, especially children and women.
They also called on all the political parties and the women rights bodies to unite in protest against women repression.
The rally was followed by a protest march that paraded different city roads.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
