Girl ‘commits suicide’ after being 'raped', forced to marry underage boy

A 19-year-old girl allegedly committed suicide after she was reportedly "raped" and forced to marry a 16-year-old boy in Old Dhaka, family alleged.

The victim, Sheuly Akter, daughter of Siraj Matubbar from Shariatpur, used to live with her parents in a tin-shed house in Kamalbagh area.

Ayub Ali, the victim’s uncle, alleged that one Babul, the caretaker of their rented house, picked Sheuly up to a room and raped her on the night of May 8.

In order to cover up the crime, Babul along with his aides forced Sheuly to marry the boy and humiliated her alleging that they had “illicit affair”, he told The Daily Star.

Sheuly “committed suicide” taking poison early Tuesday following the humiliation, he said.

Meanwhile, Shamimur Rashid Talukder, officer-in-charge of Chawkbazar Police Station, said that she allegedly took her life by taking poison after the caretaker of the house forced her to marry a 16-year-old neighbor Monday night claiming that the two had developed an illicit affair.

Nargis Begum, the mother of Sheuly, filed a suicide provocation case with the police station today, the OC said.

Later, police arrested Babul and three others in this connection, he added.