The High Court yesterday withdrew its order for a one year bail to former Awami League leader Ruhul Amin who allegedly instructed the rape of a woman at Subarnachar upazila in Noakhali on December 30.

The bench of Justice Mamnoon Rahman and Justice SM Kuddus Zaman withdrew the order of the bail as Ruhul suppressed the fact that some other accused in the case had given confessional statements to the lower court against him.

Read more

Subarnachar Rape: The man 'who ordered it' gets 1-yr bail

In the confessional statements, the other accused said the incident of rape took place as per the instruction of Ruhul. But this information was not mentioned in the bail petition filed by Ruhul, former publicity affairs secretary of Subarnachar AL unit.

The judges yesterday sat in their private chamber and passed the withdrawal order after Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Biswojit Roy informed them about the suppression of the fact on Thursday.

DAG Roy and DAG Amit Talukdar were present at the chamber when the bench withdrew the bail order but Ruhul's lawyer Asheke Rasul was not present there.

Advocate Rasul could not be reached over phone after repeated attempts.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters at his office that the way Ruhul secured bail from the HC was tantamount to a fraud upon the court.

“We will bring this issue to the chief justice's notice,” he added.

He also said his office would pray to the HC bench concerned to issue a contempt of court rule against Ruhul's lawyer and would submit an application to the Bangladesh Bar Council for taking action against Rasul if it was necessary.

On March 18, the same HC bench granted a one-year bail to Ruhul. But he is yet to get release from jail, Supreme Court Special Officer Mohammad Saifur Rahman said.

He also said the HC bench would pass further order on March 25.

On December 30 last year, a mother of four was gang-raped allegedly by 10 to 12 Awami League leaders for casting ballot for “sheaf of paddy”, electoral symbol of the BNP, according to the victim.

The victim's husband filed a case accusing nine with Charjabbar Police Station under Women and Children Repression Prevention Act. Ruhul, however, was not made an accused in it. Police held Ruhul four days after the incident.

Later, the husband claimed to the National Human Rights Commission that the First Information Report of the criminal case was not written by him as he is illiterate and his complaint was altered by those who wrote it for him. 

A Noakhali court today placed seven people including a former Awami League leader on five-day remand each in connection with the gang-rape of a woman in Subarnachar upazila of Noakhali.

Judge of Cognisance Court-2 Nobonita Guha passed the order after police produced them before it around 1:00pm, our local correspondent reports quoting Ibrahim Khalil, investigation officer of the case.

WHO IS THE MASTERMIND OF THE INCIDENT?

The Awami League yesterday expelled Ruhul Amin from the party for his alleged involvement in the gang-rape of a woman in Noakhali's Subarnachar upazila.

The decision came two days after police arrested Ruhul, the publicity affairs secretary of Subarnachar AL, on charge of ordering his accomplices to rape the mother of four for voting for the “sheaf of paddy” -- the BNP's electoral symbol -- in the election held on December 30.

Police arrested Ruhul, whose name was not mentioned in the first information report, from Wapda area in the district's Sadar upazila on Thursday. He is also a former union parishad member.

According to locals, he was once poor and he joined the AL in 2009.

After he was elected member of ward-5 of Char Jubilee Union Parishad in 2011, he led criminal activities in the locality, including drug trading, land grabbing and plundering trees, locals claimed. Later, he was made the publicity affairs secretary of Subarnachar AL.

Once a landless person, Ruhul built a housing estate a kilometre west of Pankhar Bazar on Ramgati-Char Jabbar Road. He named the estate after him, Ruhul Amin Nagar, reports our Noakhali correspondent.

He has a house near the estate.

WHAT HAPPENED IN NOAKHALI?

The 35-year-old woman was gang-raped in Subarnachar area on December 31 allegedly by 10 to 12 Awami League activists.

The woman, who was being treated at Noakhali General Hospital with severe injuries, claimed that she was raped for voting for “sheaf of paddy”, the electoral symbol of the BNP, during Sunday’s national polls.

The woman alleged the rapists were accomplices of Ruhul Amin, a former member of Char Jubilee Union Parishad. “They had repeatedly insisted that I should vote for boat [the AL's symbol] but I cast my ballot for 'sheaf of paddy',” she said.

WHAT DID DOCTORS SAY?

Doctors treating her woman have found evidence of gang rape.

The Human Rights Forum Bangladesh (HRFB), a platform of 20 rights and development organisations, yesterday called for the cancellation of the National Human Rights Commission report that failed to find a correlation between the Subarnachar rape incident and the December 30 polls.

Terming the failure “mysterious” and “suicidal” for the commission, the forum also demanded that the commission's chairman accepts the failure and makes an apology in this regard.

Meanwhile, Officer-in-Charge of Noakhali's Char Jabbar Police Station Md Nizam Uddin has been withdrawn for “negligence in duty” over the rape incident, reports our district correspondent.

Elias Sharif, superintendent of police (SP) in Noakhali, said Nizam was withdrawn and attached to the district's police lines on Tuesday night following the instruction of Deputy Inspector General of Police (Chattogram Range) Khandaker Golam Faruq.

The SP also said Shahed Uddin, who was serving as inspector (investigation) of Shudharam Model Police Station, was posted as officer-in-charge of Char Jabbar Police Station.

The victim, a housewife and mother of four, has been alleging that 10 to 12 accomplices of Ruhul Amin, a former member of Char Jubilee Union Parishad, raped her for voting for the “sheaf of paddy”, the electoral symbol of the BNP, in the wee hours of December 31.

Ruhul, who had been the publicity affairs secretary of Subarnachar Awami League, was sacked by the party following his arrest in connection with the police case filed over the incident.

However, an NHRC fact-finding committee did not find any link between the election and the gang rape.

Evidence of raping, severely beating the victim and inflicting grievous injuries on her has been found, read the report published on the NHRC website.

“However, no link between the beating and raping and the 11th parliamentary polls were found during investigation,” it said.

The incident took place as a sequel to previous enmity with the accused as cited in the statement of the case filed by the victim's husband, it added.

In a statement yesterday, the HRFB said, “Such a report by the National Human Rights Commission has utterly surprised us.”

The victim's statement in media reports and facts found by some of the HRFB members tell a different story of the incident, it said.

Ain o Salish Kendra, also a member organisation of the HRFB, has found that, alongside previous enmity, the election had a correlation with the rape incident, it added.

Another HRFB member organisation, Nijera Kori, learnt from the victim, her husband and locals that she was attacked on instruction of the accused as revenge for not voting for the “boat”, the Awami League's electoral symbol, the statement further said.

After the police case was filed, the complainant, the victim's husband, claimed to have told police that accomplices of Ruhul raped his wife as she voted for the “sheaf of paddy”.

Some of Ruhul's accomplices had allegedly asked her to vote for “boat”. As she did not comply, an altercation ensued and they threatened her with “dire consequences”, he alleged.

The husband told The Daily Star on January 1 that police wrote the first information report (FIR) and asked him to sign it. “I am illiterate ... I could not read what was written on it. I just signed it.”

“The [NHRC] report has failed to unearth the truth,” said the HRFB statement.

It urged the government to form a joint probe committee comprising civil society representatives and relevant institutions.

The forum also demanded action based on investigation against those who prepared and approved the report.

“It is imperative to ensure fair probe into the incident and justice, to prevent its [such incident's] recurrence during polls,” said the statement. 

Eight-year-old Imran, whose body was recovered in Begumganj upazila of Noakhali on August 25, was gang-raped by four youths before the murder, police said today.

The four youths, who are friends, took Imran to an abandoned tin-shed room near Chhoyani bazar luring him with chips and raped him on August 22, Alamgir Hossain, superintendent of police in Noakhali, said at a press conference.

The criminals later strangulated the child to death by using a rope with his neck, the SP said.

Imran, son of Samsul Haque of Sharifur village, was a first grader student of Chhoyani Government Primary School.

He went missing on August 22 and police recovered his decomposed body from the tin-shed room on August 25. The victim’s father filed a murder case with Begumganj Police Station on August 26.

The narrative of brutal murder came to limelight after police arrested an accused, Washim Akram, on Sunday, the police official said.

During primary interrogation, Washim told police that he and his three friends raped the boy, as he felt sick, they took the boy to a village doctor, but the doctor suggested them to take the boy to any hospital.

SP Alamgir Hossain said they again took the boy to the tin-shed room, kill him and kept the body in a basket.  

However, Washim gave his confessional statement before a magistrate court yesterday, said the SP.