A special tribunal in Dhaka on Wednesday sentenced former teacher of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College Parimal Joydhar to life imprisonment for raping his student on several occasions in 2011.
Women and Children Repression (Prevention) Tribunal-4 judge Saleh Uddin Ahmed pronounced the verdict in presence of the convict.
The court also fined Tk 50,000 or, in default, six months more in jail.
The judge, however, did not mention any observation regarding the case.
None of the victim’s family was present during the verdict.
Mahmuda Akter, panel lawyer of Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation, said he (Parimal Joydhar) was not repentant at all since beginning of the trial. The tribunal could award him capital punishment in lieu of life imprisonment, she said.
Defence counsel Md Mahfuz Miah said they are not satisfied over the verdict.
‘We will appeal against the judgement to the High Court,’ he added.
Earlier on November 10, the tribunal set today for delivering verdict in the case.
According to the prosecution, Parimal, teacher of the school’s Bashundhara branch, raped one of his students, confining her inside his private coaching centre on May 28, 2011.
Parimal recorded the incident with his mobile phone, and he raped the victim again on June 17 threatening to release the video of first incident through online.
The girl complained to the authorities against Parimal about the incidents. The school authorities suspended Parimal after a meeting of the governing body.
On July 5, 2011, the victim’s father had filed a case accusing Parimal of raping his daughter, and Hosne Ara Begum, who was the school’s former principal, and Bashundhara branch’s head Lutfur Rahman of abetting Parimal in the crimes.
Parimal was arrested from a house of a relative at Keraniganj and he later confessed to his crimes before the magistrate on July 11, 2011.
Hosne Ara was suspended on July 15, 2011 amid widespread criticism and agitation from students and guardians.
Badda police station officer-in-charge SM Shahadat Hossain, also investigation officer of the case, had submitted a charge sheet on August 11, 2011 dropping the names of Hosne Ara and Lutfur Rahman.
On September 14, 2011 the tribunal had ordered a further investigation in the case after the victim’s father expressed a no-confidence in the first charge sheet.
Later, the detective branch of police had submitted a supplementary charge sheet against Parimal on November 28, 2011.
The tribunal had indicted Parimal for rape charge on March 7, 2012.
Twenty eight persons, out of 40, had testified in the case.
Source: New Age