Student leaders beaten up for protesting arbitration in child rape case
Meherpur Sadar police station sub-inspector (SI) Sujay Kumar has been accused of exerting pressure on plaintiffs to withdraw a rape case. He allegedly beat up two leaders of Student Movement Against Discrimination for protesting. The incidents occurred Thursday evening.
Later, SI Sujay Kumar was withdrawn from the police station and was attached to the district police lines.
According to the police and the locals, a case was filed with the Meherpur Sadar police station on the allegation of raping a nine-year-old girl. The victim's mother filed the case as the plaintiff accusing Bayezid Hossain of Modnadanga village in the Sadar upazila.
Following that, the police arrested prime accused Bayezid and two others and sent them to prison on 12 September. They were released on bail later.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, the victim’s mother said, “The three accused got released on bail due to the negligence of police. The accused have been threatening us in different ways since they got out of jail. They are putting pressure on us to withdraw the case by threatening to upload a video of the incident online. “
“SI Sujay Kumar sat with both sides at the police station to settle the matter. There he pressured us to withdraw the case taking the side of the accused,” she added.
Meanwhile, Student Movement against Discrimination leaders Tushar Ahmed and Siyam Hossain went to the police station upon hearing the news and protested against the arbitration to cover up the rape incident. Enraged with the protest, the SI beat the student leaders indiscriminately inside the police station. The locals besieged the police station and demonstrated in protest of the incident. They demanded exemplary punishment for the SI and the accused.
The brother of the plaintiff told newspersons that SI Sujay Kumar was trying to save the accused in various ways. He also asked the plaintiffs to withdraw the case taking money.
At this point, the victim’s family contacted the student leaders who intervened into the arbitration and demanded strict measures against the accused. Enraged with their intervention the SI beat them up.
Meanwhile, army personnel reached the spot and tried to bring the situation under control after the local besieged the police station.
At one point, Meherpur superintendent of police (SP) Maksuda Khanam showed up. The students raised a three-point demand in her presence. The demands were, withdrawing the SI within an hour, immediate arrest of the accused for intimidating the plaintiff and exemplary punishment for the accused.
Following that, the Meherpur SP immediately withdrew SI Sujay Kumar from the police station and posted him to the district police lines.
Meherpur Sadar police station officer-in-charge (OC) Mejbah Uddin said, “SI Sujay Kumar has been withdrawn from this police station. Additional police forces have been deployed at the police station. The situation is under control at the moment.”