Madrasa girl raped in car

A man, who allegedly raped a madrasa student inside a car on Sunday, was killed in a “gunfight” with police in Chattogram's Mariner's Road area early yesterday.

Police said they arrested another suspect over the rape in city's DC Road area hours before the “shootout”.

The dead Md Shahabuddin, 23, was a resident of Kutubdia upazila in Cox's Bazar while the arrestee Shaymol Dey, 30, is from Rangunia upazila of Chattogram.

Both of them were car drivers.

Police claimed to have recovered a firearm and four cartridges from the spot, said police.

On the day of the rape, the two forcibly picked up the girl, who was going to attend her classes, in a private car from in front of Jamal Khan PDB officer quarters around 10:30am, said Mehedi Hasan, deputy commissioner (DC) of Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) South Division.

The miscreants were able to carry out the crime in broad daylight as the car had tinted windows and they played music with high volume so as not to get noticed, he added.

Later, they dropped her off at Goni Bakery intersection.

They pretended to have recorded the whole incident on one of their mobile phones and threatened the girl of releasing the video clip if she told anyone, the DC said.

Inspector Kamruzzaman of Kotwali Police Station, who led the drive to arrest Shaymol, said, “On Monday, Shahabuddin called the girl again and asked her to come to their designated place threatening to release the clip if she had acted otherwise.”

“Following the phone call, the victim lodged a complaint with the police and the investigation began,” said the Inspector.

Police set a trap on Monday evening to arrest the two in city's Didar Market area where Shahabuddin and one of his cohorts, other than Shyamol, were waiting in a car for the girl.

As soon as the girl arrived at the spot around 6:30pm (as part of the plan), Shahabuddin picked her up inside the car drove towards Chawkbazar area.

Although the police had a plan to catch Shahabuddin red handed, but they could not.

After an hour-long chase, the miscreants left the car, along with the girl, at Jahur Hawkers market area and escaped.

Later, police arrested Shyamol around 10:30pm by identifying his car, which was used in the rape incident on Sunday, through CCTV footage.

Based on his information, police went to arrest Shahabuddin in city's Fishery Ghat area.

The “gunfight” ensued around 3:30am when Shahabuddin and his cohorts opened fire on police, forcing them to retaliate.

Kamruzaman also said Shahabuddin “raped” another girl before in the same manner but that did not come to light because of her silence.

DC Mehedi said police had information that there was a syndicate of drivers who were involved with various crimes including kidnapping and rape.

Police are trying to arrest them, he added.

The victim was sent to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH)'s One Stop Crisis Centre while the body was sent to the medical college's morgue for autopsy.

Police also claimed to have seized the two cars used in the crimes.