The husband of the Jashore woman, who was raped allegedly by a police officer and his informant, was planning to open a shop with Tk 1.5 lakh the family arranged by selling a piece of land. 

But his attempt to start a small business shunning drug smuggling drew sub-inspector Khairul’s attention. The officer, who is the in-charge of Gorpara Police Camp in Jashore’s Sharsha upazila, called the woman’s husband to his camp around 12 days ago and demanded Tk 50,000, the woman told The Daily Star yesterday.

When the man refused to give the money, Khairul arrested him and accused him in a drugs-related case. Several residents of the woman’s neighbourhood said they were aware of the incidents.

“Khairul along with his informant and two others again came to my home a few days later andpromised to release my husband if I gave him Tk 50,000,” the woman said.

She said she recently sold a piece of land for Tk 1.5 lakh. With the money, she and her husband started preparing a piece of land for a roadside shop.

“This money and my husband’s wish to become a good man has brought me the disaster,” the victim said.

Around 2:30am on Tuesday, the SI and several others allegedly went to her village home and demanded Tk 50,000 for the release of her husband. But when she refused to give any money, the SI and his informant raped her. 

Police arrested three suspects -- Kamrul, 40, Omar Ali, 50, and Abdul Latif, 48, over the alleged rape.

SI Khairul refutes the allegations. The Police Bureau of Investigation is investigating the case.

While this correspondent was talking to the woman, over a dozen locals gathered and listened to her.

The locals seemed willing to talk to reporters visting the area, but most of them didn’t say much when asked about SI Khairul.

Only three residents, asking not to be named, spoke about Khairul.

“Khairul unleashed a reign of terror in the area,” said one of them.

Another man, aged about 40, said, “Khairul collects information about villagers through his informants and often forces his targets to give him money by threatening to implicate them in false cases.”

He never verifies whether the information he receives through his informant is correct, the man added.

“Khairul would not even spare the respected people of the village,” said another man.

They also said Khairul used to skim off the top of the money some people in the area earned by smuggling in everyday objects from India.

Khairul said all allegations against him were false and part of a conspiracy.

The area is not far from the Bangladesh-India border and it is not hard to find people in the neighbourhoods who earn their living by smuggling in goods or drugs.

The only police camp in the area is at Gorpara. After serving as the camp-in-charge for around three years, Khairul was transferred. But he managed to come back as the camp in-charge about a year ago.

Asked about the allegation against Khairul, Officer-in-Charge of Sharsha Police Station Mashiur Rahman, who is the supervising officer of the SI, said he never received any allegation against Khairul.

The OC added that Khairul was transferred to the district Detective Branch, from where he returned to the camp last November.

Meanwhile, the victim, a mother of two, yesterday again demanded exemplary punishment of the perpetrators.

“They should be punished so that no one dares to rape women,” she told reporters.