Bus driver confesses involvement

Main accused of Tangail bus gang-rape Habibur Rahman Nayan, the driver of the vehicle, confessed to the crime in a court here yesterday.

Hamidul Islam, additional chief judicial magistrate, recorded Nayan's statement under the section 164, said Khan Hasan Mostofa, inspector (investigation) of Dhanbari Police Station, who is also the investigation officer of the case.

Another accused Rezaul Karim Jewel, conductor of the bus, on Monday gave his confessional statement before the same magistrate's court.

Two days before, Abdul Khalek Bhutto, helper of the bus, also confessed before Luna Ferdousi, senior judicial magistrate in Tangail, that he was involved in the rape incident.

The three on the day were produced before the senior judicial magistrate's court that placed Nayan and Jewel on a three-day remand.

The victim's husband filed a case against the three and six transport leaders with Dhanbari Police Station under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act on Friday night.

The accused transport leaders, who allegedly tried to protect the "rapists", have gone into hiding.

“We are conducting drives at different places to arrest them,” said Mojibor Rahman, officer-in-charge of Dhanbari police.

The victim, a garment worker, aged around 23, was returning to her Gazipur house from a relative's house in Dhanbari on a bus of Binimoy Paribahan early Friday. She was the only passenger in the bus that had the three staff.

Around 6:00am, when the bus was on Tangail-Mymensingh road in Madhupur upazila, the trio closed the gate and windows. They also tied her hands and legs and gagged her. The bus staff then raped her by turns before pushing her out of the bus in a desolate place by the road.