Detectives claim to have made first arrest

Detectives yesterday claimed to have made the first arrest over the sexual assaults on women during the Pahela Baishakh celebrations on Dhaka University campus last year.

The arrest of Mohammad Kamal, 35, comes just a little over a month after the investigators submitted the final report in the case to a Dhaka court, saying they had failed to identify or arrest anyone in connection with the incident.

The latest development has now prompted them to seek revival of the case.

Police say Kamal was arrested from a house at the capital's Chawkbazar on Wednesday evening, and during primary interrogation, he confessed to his involvement in the molestation.

During the April 14 celebrations last year, at least 20 women were molested for over an hour.

Police initially refused to even admit that any such incident had happened. They also allegedly released a couple of offenders, caught on the spot and handed over to them by people.

Amid a massive public outcry, police later admitted the incident and conducted several inquiries. Then they released photos of eight suspected offenders and announced bounty for providing information about them.

A press release of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, issued yesterday, says Kamal is one of the eight people.

It could not be known immediately whether someone provided information that led to his arrest.

Maruf Hossain Sorder, deputy commissioner (media) of the DMP, yesterday said detectives with the help of Chawkbazar police nabbed Kamal raiding House 77 on Khazi Dewan Lane around 6:30pm on Wednesday.

The house is owned by Kamal, according to DMP sources.

A vegetable trader by profession, Kamal had alone gone to the TSC area on DU campus on April 14, the sources added.

Mashrukure Rahman Khaled, a Detective Branch (DB) deputy commissioner of the DMP, said Kamal had gone into hiding for several days following the incident.

Detectives yesterday produced Kamal, shown arrested under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka and sought a seven-day remand for him. But the court granted two days, said court sources.

Further information on his involvement could be gleaned from him during the remand, said DB official Khaled.

Although a number of police personnel were standing nearby when the women were being assaulted during the Bangla New Year celebrations, they allegedly did not do anything to stop it.

After the initial denials and the subsequent admission, police on May 17 released photos of the suspected molesters, identified from the CCTV footage obtained from the scene.

Six of them were identified by Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque, who sat with the investigators in two phases to scrutinise the footage.

Liton Nandi, who along with some others rescued several women during the incident and later helped police identify the culprits from the footage, yesterday said the arrest was "a positive sign".

"Hopefully, police will arrest the others ... and will not try to cover up the incident," Liton, president of the Dhaka University chapter of Bangladesh Chhatra Union, told The Daily Star over the phone.

PETITION TO REVIVE THE CASE

DB Sub-inspector Dipak Kumar Das, investigation officer of the sexual assault case, yesterday filed a petition with a Dhaka court seeking revival of the case proceedings.

The same officer on December 24 submitted the final report in the case to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, saying none of the culprits could be identified or arrested.

In the new petition, this time lodged with the Third Tribunal for Prevention of Women and Children Repression, SI Dipak argued that the case should be revived for fresh investigation in light of the arrest of a suspected offender.

Judge Jayasri Samaddar fixed February 23 to pass an order on the prayer and directed the police to produce Kamal before the court on the day, said court sources.