7-year-old madrasa student allegedly raped repeatedly, 5 arrested
Police have arrested five people, including two teachers, over allegations that a seven-year-old madrasa student was raped in Savar, Dhaka.
The suspects were arrested in separate raids in different districts across the country.
The child’s family filed a case alleging that he was repeatedly raped and abused over a period of six months.
Dhaka District Additional Superintendent of Police (Savar Circle) Rakibul Hasan briefed reporters at Savar Model Police Station on Saturday afternoon about the arrests.
He said some of the arrested suspects had confessed to the crimes during preliminary questioning by police.
Rakibul Hasan said police arrested the five suspects after analysing various information and evidence and conducting raids in different parts of the country. Teams from Savar Model Police Station, Ashulia Police Station and the Detective Branch (DB) conducted raids in Barguna, Bhola, Sirajganj, Gazipur and Dhaka to make the arrests.
“The Dhaka District Police are handling the case with the utmost importance. We are confident that we will be able to arrest the remaining suspects very soon,” he said.
According to a police press release, three of the five arrested suspects are boys aged 12, 13 and 15. All three are students at the madrasa. The other two are madrasa teachers Jaber Hossain, 21, and Md Kamrul Islam, 26.
The three juvenile suspects and teacher Jaber Hossain have been accused of raping the child. Kamrul Islam has been accused of abusing the child to prevent him from telling his family about the incidents.
On 23 August, the child’s father filed a case petition with the court of Judge Masrur Saleqin of the Dhaka Metropolitan Child Violence Suppression Tribunal, alleging that the child had been raped and abused repeatedly over six months. The court subsequently took cognisance of the petition and directed Savar Model Police Station to register it as a first information report (FIR).
The case petition named five students, four teachers and the director of the madrasa in the Purba Shahbag area of Savar as accused. Five students and one teacher were directly accused of rape, while three other teachers and the director were accused of beating and threatening the victim instead of taking action against the alleged perpetrators.