SI harassed female student in the city

A Dhaka court has found Sub-inspector Ratan Kumar of Adabor Police Station involved in sexual harassment of a university student in the city's Mohammadpur on January 31.

During the probe into the incident, Metropolitan Magistrate Md Imdadul Haque yesterday recorded statements of five people, including the victim, and initially found the allegation against Ratan to be true, said court sources.

Later, the magistrate sent the probe report to Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Sheikh Hafizur Rahman. The CMM would forward it today to the Fourth Tribunal for Prevention of Women and Children Repression for next course of action.

The victim alleged that SI Ratan and two other cops of the police station stopped her rickshaw around 3:00pm on January 31 while she was on way to a bookstore on Nurjahan Road.

The policemen confined the ASA University student to an electronics shop in Mohammadpur and harassed her for about 45 minutes, accusing her of being a yaba peddler.

Later, the victim filed a case against the cops with the Fourth Tribunal for Prevention of Women and Children Repression.

Tribunal Judge Md Salehuddin Ahmed on February 1 ordered CMM Hafizur to conduct a probe into the incident and submit the report within seven working days.

The CMM tasked the metropolitan magistrate with the investigation.

Talking to The Daily Star, Biplob Kumar Sarkar, deputy commissioner (Tejgaon Division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said they found that Ratan talked to the girl on the street unnecessarily.

But the complaint that the girl was taken to a shop was found to be not true because the shop owner said “no such incident took place in his shop”, added Biplob.

If found guilty of sexual harassment, an accused might face a minimum three-year jail term and the maximum is seven years.