Three cops accused of harassing woman

A female university student yesterday alleged that a sub-inspector and two constables of Adabor Police Station harassed her after confining her to a shop in Shia Mosque area of Mohammadpur.

Farhana Akhtar said SI Ratan Kumar and two other cops stopped her rickshaw and started accusing her of being a yaba peddler around 3:00pm yesterday when she was on her way to a bookstore on Noorjahan Road.

The student of ASHA University in Shyamoli alleged that the policemen then confined her to a nearby electronics shop for 45 minutes, searched her purse and threatened to search her body.

“As I refused to allow them to search my body and asked them to take me to the police station if need be, the SI hurled abuse,” Farhana told The Daily Star over the phone last night.

She alleged that SI Ratan tried to hit on her, gave indecent proposals and asked her to go to a hotel with him.

“Before allowing me to leave, the SI said the OC [officer-in-charge] or DC [deputy commissioner] is nothing to him and that there will be no consequences for him even if I filed a complaint against him,” Farhana added.

Farhana's husband Sajib Ahmed Rana, a Jubo Dal leader of Adabor, said the SI sexually harassed his wife and forced her to take off her pullover.

SI Ratan denied the allegations. He, however, admitted that he had stopped her rickshaw and wanted to know the whereabouts of her husband.

He said as he enquired about her husband, she started to make a scene and at that point, he allowed her to leave.

Deputy Commissioner of Tejgaon Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Biplob Kumar Sarkar said he would employ an additional deputy commissioner to probe the incident.