Failing to pay off a debt of Tk 6,000, a man let the lender rape his 13-year-old daughter multiple times throughout a year in the capital’s Kamrangirchar.

The father, arrested Tuesday morning, used to force his daughter to take sedatives and contraceptives before the lender would rape the girl, locals said.

The alleged rapist, Abul Hossain, 35, owner of a poultry store managed to flee. Police said they were looking for him.

Residents of the neighbourhood learnt what had been going on after a woman of the neighbourhood saw the girl dozing off and slurring her words in front her father’s rented tin-shack Monday night, locals said.

As the woman asked her if she was okay, the girl showed her the packs of sedatives and contraceptives she was given the night before.

The girl then told the woman that her father gave her the pills because his employer would come to visit around 3:00am on Tuesday to spend “some time with her”.

The woman then called some locals and the girl told them that she was often given the pills and forced to sleep with her father’s employer.

One of the neighbours filmed her statement.

“The victim told us that her father forced her to do this. Her father used to help the rapist in the brutality,” a neighbour told The Daily Star, quoting the girl.

Police said the girl, her father, and her elder brother lived in a rented room -- one in a row of such rooms in a tin-shack.

“She must have been given the sedatives so that she cannot scream,” a neighbour told The Daily Star.

Locals said a police team led by a sub-inspector went to the area Tuesday morning.

A resident said, “The officer tried to bury the incident at first. He said we were spreading rumours. But we protested.” 

Over 20 locals, mostly women, talked to this correspondent and gave identical accounts. 

“We told the police that we recorded the victim’s statement and threatened them with larger protests. The SI then left the scene, saying he was ill,” a woman said.

Another team of police then arrested the father.

Asked, Mostafa Anwar, inspector of Kamrangirchar Police Station, refuted the allegation that they tried to bury the incident. He said the SI in question was really sick and would not be able to speak. 

Locals said the girl often requested them to arrange a marriage for her. “‘My father will never get me married,’ she used to tell us,” said a woman.

Police arrested the father Tuesday night after the girl informed them, but the alleged rapist Abul Hossain, 35, managed to flee.

A case was filed with Kamrangirchar Police Station against Abul and the father, said Sub-inspector Sheikh Mohammad Morshed Ali of the police station.

The father borrowed Tk 6,000 from Abul over a year ago and was not able to pay the debt, he added.

Abul then told the father that he would not need to repay if he let him have sex with the girl, the SI said.

The father agreed and the first rape occurred in the girl’s house a year ago, the officer said.

The girl’s mother is a migrant worker and her brother a labourer.

Abul would visit her at home occasionally and rape her, Morshed added, quoting the girl.

“A neighbour called 999, the national emergency helpline,” he said, adding that police rescued the girl and arrested her father hours later.

The girl was sent to one-stop crisis centre of Dhaka Medical College Hospital later that night.

OCC coordinator Bilkis Begum said doctors found evidence of rape after examining the girl.

GARMENT WORKER GANGRAPED

A garment worker was allegedly gang raped by her landlord and three others in Savar’s Ashulia area after the woman and her husband failed to pay rent.

Police arrested the 45-year-old landlord after the 22-year-old woman filed a case with Ashulia Police Station yesterday.

According to the case statement, the woman and her family had been living in the house for a year. She had not paid rent for December.

Around 11:30pm Tuesday, the four suspects went to the woman’s house and asked for the money. When the woman and her husband sought time, the suspects beat them up.

At one point, they confined the husband to a room and raped her in another, the case statement reads.

The suspects also took away a gold chain and some belongings of the family, Selim Reza, sub-inspector Ashulia Police Station, told our Savar correspondent.

Police are trying to arrest the other accused.

TWO GANG-RAPED IN MOULVIBAZAR

Two women aged 18 and 20 were gang-raped in Moulvibazar town Tuesday evening.

The women were going home when they were stopped by four men who allegedly raped them.

Police arrested one of the suspects, Munna Mia, 30, a resident of Uttar Jagannathpur area of the town, reports our correspondent.

The suspects took the women to a bush near the road, tied their hands and gagged them with tape, and then raped them, said Alamgir Hossain, officer-in-charge of Moulvibazar Police Station.

The women are being treated at a hospital.

GIRL RAPED IN DINAJPUR

Police arrested a man on charge of raping a six-year-old girl in Chirirbandar upazila of Dinajpur Tuesday night after her father filed a case.

Mursalin, 21, was sent to jail yesterday.

The girl was admitted to a hospital in Dinajpur.

According to the First Information Report, the girl was playing near her home Tuesday afternoon when the suspect took her girl to an under-construction luring her with chocolates.

Subrata Sarkar, officer-in-charge of Dinajpur Police Station, said the man raped the girl there. As the girl cried for help, villagers rushed there and rescued her.

The accused fled the scene, but was arrested later, the OC said.