RU student rescued from university teacher’s house

A female student of Rajshahi University yesterday said she was sexually abused when she went to a university teacher’s house for tutoring the latter’s daughter at the city’s Dharampur area early yesterday.

The first year student at English department accused the teacher’s unemployed brother Shyamol Banik, 45, in a case filed with Motihar police station.

Police arrested Shyamol in connection with the case -- in which she alleged that he swooped on her and sexually abused her while she was asleep, said Hafizur Rahman, officer-in-charge of the police station.

The girl went to the house of RU’s Sanskrit department teacher Dr Bithika Banik at 7:30pm, to tutor Bithika’s seventh-grade daughter, according to the case statement.

When the tuition session ended at 10:30pm, Dr Bithika asked her to stay at her home for the night, seeing bad weather and torrential rain outside. The student was provided a bed in a room at her house.

The student was a resident of Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Hall at RU, of which Dr Bithika is the provost.

Bithika was in the house until 1:30am, when she had to leave the house answering a call from the dormitory, the provost said while talking to journalists.

“Although I went to the dormitory that night, I decided not to take her with me. I thought she would be safe at my home,” Bithika said.

She said the student wanted to go to the dormitory with her, but she decided not to take her as she went out in a rented vehicle. “I wanted to ensure her safety.”

In the case statement, the student alleged that she went to bed after Bithika went out, with only her daughter and her brother in the house.

At 2:30am, she woke to find Shyamol on her.

“I was afraid and felt sick. I started shouting as loud as I could,” she wrote in the complaint filed with the police station.

Shyamol ran away from the room, and finding no way to get out of the house, she called her father in Gopalganj.

Around 3am, her father called the national helpline 999, OC Hafizur Rahman said.

Upon receiving the call, police contacted RU Proctor Prof Lutfar Rahman -- who lives in the area -- and conducted a raid at Dr Bithika’s house.

Police rescued the girl and sent her to the One-Stop Crisis Centre at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. She was released from the hospital after gathering samples for various laboratory tests, said the OC.

Then the girl, accompanied by her relatives, classmates and teachers went to Motihar Police Station to file her complaint.

Shyamol said he is unemployed and “aspires to be a monk”, the OC said, adding that he confessed to the police of abusing her “in his sleep”.

Our RU Correspondent contributed to this report.