Police have arrested six people following allegations that a 25-year-old housewife was subjected to an attempted gang rape in Daganbhuiyan, Feni. The incident reportedly involved the woman and her husband being forcibly taken to different locations, restrained and threatened. The accused are also alleged to have taken several personal belongings and damaged the couple’s auto-rickshaw.
The incident reportedly took place late on Saturday night, 5 September. The woman subsequently filed a case at Daganbhuiyan Police Station under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, naming nine people and several unidentified individuals as accused.
According to the case statement, the woman and her husband, identified as Masud, had travelled from Chattogram to their home in Madhya Bagya village in Char Jabbar upazila of Noakhali. They were travelling in their own auto-rickshaw. After reaching Daganbhuiyan late at night, they reportedly stopped at an auto-rickshaw garage on Fazilghat Road at around 12.30am because the vehicle’s battery charge had become low.
The husband, who had travelled a long distance, reportedly left his wife at the garage while he went to a nearby hotel to collect food. The complaint alleges that a group of men then approached the woman and subsequently took both her and her husband against their will to a house in Jagatpur.
The case statement names Abu Bashar, 42, Rashed, Zakir Hossain, 19, Abdul Mannan, 29, Delwar Hossain, 24, Shahedul Islam, 19, Shahriar Noman, 19, Jaker Hossain, 19, and Shakil, 18, among the accused. Other unidentified people have also been named.
The woman alleged that her husband was restrained while the attackers attempted to sexually assault her. Despite her pleas, the couple were allegedly taken to an under-construction building in Jagatpur, where their hands and feet were tied. The complaint states that another attempt to rape the woman was made there at around 1.30am.
The allegations do not end with the reported sexual assault attempt. The group is accused of taking the woman’s smartphone, her husband’s smartphone, gold jewellery she was wearing, a sound box and a table fan. The attackers allegedly severed the battery connection of the auto-rickshaw and warned the couple that they would be killed if they disclosed what had happened.
Police later rescued the woman and her husband after receiving information about the incident. Six of the nine named accused have since been arrested. Police said efforts were under way to establish the circumstances of the incident and identify any other people who may have been involved.
Daganbhuiyan Police Station officer-in-charge Faizul Azim Noman said the police moved to rescue the couple as soon as they learned of the allegations and subsequently arrested six people named in the case.
Asked whether the woman had undergone a forensic examination for evidence of rape, the officer said no such examination had been carried out at that stage. He explained that the case statement alleged an attempt to rape, while the woman had not given a statement at the police station saying that she had been raped.
The allegations have since generated widespread discussion on social media, with differing reactions from members of the public. However, the claims made in the case remain allegations at this stage. The investigation, evidence gathered by police and subsequent judicial proceedings will determine the legal responsibility of those accused.
