Woman allegedly raped by cop inside police outpost

rape

A widow was allegedly raped by four persons, including a policeman, in an outpost under the Sylhet Kotwali police in the city on September 22.

The woman filed a case with the Kotwali police on September 26 night following five-day treatment at the One-stop Crisis Centre in Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital.

OCC provides required services for the woman victims of violence in one place. It provides the victims with healthcare, police assistance, DNA test, social services, legal assistance, psychological counseling and shelter service etc.

The woman complained that she was raped at the police outpost adjacent to the shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal, a 14th-century Sufi saint, in the city of Sylhet.

Sylhet Kotwali police sub-inspector Shah Md Mubasshir confirmed the filing of the case. He, however, said that the accused were not identified by their names.

The widow claimed that the police refused to mention the accused by their names as they are trying to save a policeman named Kamal.

The woman, in her statement to the police, said she is resident of Habiganj. She went to doctor for treatment in Sylhet on September 22. She decided to stay at the shrine as night approached.

Three persons came to her at about 10:00pm and said that the “sahib of the police outpost wished to talk to her”. They took her to a room on the first floor of the outpost on the bank of the shrine pond.

The persons shut the door just after the entered the room and tried to rape her, she added.

She said they beat her as she tried to stop them. Later, four persons, including Nayek Kamal, raped her and allowed her to leave the room at about 2:00am on Tuesday. She spent the night at the shrine and went to Osmani Medical College Hospital in the early morning. She was immediately admitted into the OCC.

The officials in the OCC said she received treatment from September 23 to 26. She was undergone a medical test to find out whether she was raped. Later, she filed the complaints with the help of OCC.

Nayek Kamal brushed aside the complaints and said, “No one, including I and the others the woman named, is involved in the incident. I swear to Allah that the incident is totally fabricated.”

Sylhet Kotwali police officer-in-charge (investigation), Monirul Islam, said the woman first named two persons. Later, she said that she could not identify the persons. A day after, she named the policeman. As she was changing the descriptions, no accused were identified by their name.

Source: Prothom-Alo