Video of ‘rape victim’, taken by OC, make rounds on social media
A Thai woman filed a lawsuit against a man from Feni’s Sadar upazila accusing him of raping and beating her on a promise of marriage. When police arrested the accused, the woman visited the Feni Model police station, met the officer-in-charge (OC) and praised the law enforcers. The OC, however, made videos of her praising remarks that started making rounds in social media later.
Human rights activists and lawyers said the dignity of that woman, who claimed to be a rape victim, has been tarnished socially by making videos of her in such a manner, and by spreading the video clips in social media platform.
Video clips available on social media platform, Facebook, showed the woman speaking in English sitting in the OC’s room, and appreciating the police’s efforts. However, many people threw gibes at her in the comments.
Tonni Shom, member of the rights body, Odhikar, said that the woman filed the case on allegation of rape and torture. It is very saddening to record the video in the OC’s mobile phone in such a manner, as well as to release the video clips in social media. Law enforcement agencies must be more sensitive and careful on these matters.
Sahad Uddin, public prosecutor of the Women and Children Tribunal of Feni judge court, said, “Police cannot make video of such victims and hand it over to anyone without the court’s permission. The police have no authority to release such videos in social media either. Even if the matter is related to a compliment, it is not the duty of police to record video and distribute it. The court will be informed of the activities of the police during the next hearing.”
Feni Model police station’s OC Md Shamsuzzaman admitted to recording the foreigner’s remarks in his mobile. “Since the woman praised the police because of our activities, we asked the people concerned to publish the matter with positive thoughts. No rape issue came up in the woman’s remarks, but we had no idea that it would drew negative comments after publishing it in social media. I am ashamed, and I request you to see the matter with a forgiving attitude,” he said.
The Thai woman filed the case under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act against certain Mokhshur Rahman, 48, and two unidentified people with the Feni Sadar Model police station on Monday.
Police arrested Mokhshur Rahman following the case.
The case statement said the Thai woman runs a business in Hong Kong where she met Mokhshur Rahman, who was behind bars there over visa complexities. She helped him to come out of jail. Mokhshur Rahman then returned to Bangladesh. Later, he called her to Bangladesh on promise of marriage and raped her on 12 October last year.
The woman gave 210,000 Hong Kong dollars and some gold ornaments for Mokhshur Rahman’s business. She asked him to return the money and the gold when she left for home after the rape incident.
She came to Bangladesh again on 13 April. When she went to Mokhshur Rahman’s house again, she was beaten and ousted from there. At that time, her mobile phone was also vandalised, according to the case statement.
A similar incident of taking a video of a sexual harassment victim and releasing it on social media took place in Feni’s Sonagazi in 2019.
A woman filed a lawsuit against the principal of a madrasah accusing him of harassing her daughter sexually in Sonagazi on 27 March that year.
Then police station OC Moazzem Hossain recorded a video of the victim on the pretext of interrogation. Later, the video made rounds on a social media platform.
A case was filed against the OC under the Cyber Security Act. Former OC Moazzem was sentenced to eight years in jail in the case.