Woman ‘raped’ in train toilet

A female passenger was allegedly raped inside a toilet of the Rangpur Express train at Dhaka's Kamalapur Railway Station yesterday.

Railway Police detained the suspect, Saiful Islam, 28, a public address announcer of the train, after the victim lodged a verbal complaint against him with the train officials, said Farhat Ahmed, superintendent of Syedpur Railway Police.

Motaher Ali, divisional signal and telecommunication engineer of Bangladesh Railway's Lalmonirhat Division, said Saiful has been working as an outsourced employee since February last year.

After learning about the incident through social media, Bangladesh Railway wrote to Rajat Enterprise, through which Saiful was hired, requesting legal action against him, Motaher told The Daily Star last night.

The incident reportedly took place between 8:45am and 9:15am when the train was stationed at the platform, he said.

Quoting the victim, Railway Police sources said the woman was heading home to Kurigram when Saiful confined her to the train toilet and raped her.

"Upon being informed, police took immediate action and apprehended the suspect. They were taken to Santahar Railway Police Station in Bogura as it was the nearest police station after the train started its journey," SP Farhat said.

A case will be filed at Dhaka Railway Police Station in Kamalapur, and further legal procedures will be completed there, he said.

Habibur Rahman, in charge of Bogura's Santahar Railway Police Station, said police took both the victim and the accused off the Rangpur Express around 4:15pm.

Later, at 4:45pm, they were sent to Kamalapur on the Panchagarh Express under the supervision of Railway Police, he said.

Contacted, Jaynal Abedin, officer-in-charge of Dhaka Railway Police Station, said they were informed about the incident and were waiting for the victim to come.

A case will be filed with the Dhaka Railway Police Station in connection with the incident, he said.

[Our correspondents in Lalmonirhat and Bogura contributed to this report]