Five held for raping girl on stranded vessel

Coast Guard members yesterday rescued a girl from a stranded vessel and arrested five youths on charge of gang-raping the girl in Bhola’s Charfesson upazila.

The arrestees are Yusuf Hasan Sardar, 21, Sohel Rana Didar, 20, Wasel Ahmed Sikder, 22, Morshed Hang, 35, and Rupom Fakir, 20. All of them are residents of different areas in the upazila.

A team of Coast Guard noticed a trawler was stuck in the Meghna river while patrolling the river early yesterday, said Alamgir Hossain, contingent commander of Coast Guard’s South Zone.

When they approached the vessel, a girl’s scream came out of it which made them conduct a raid, he said.

Later, they handed over the girl and the arrestees to police, the contingent commander said.

The victim, a garment worker in Dhaka, told police that she had an affair with one of the accused Sohel Rana, said Milon Kumar Ghosh, officer-in-charge of Bhola’s Dakkhin Aicha Police Station.

Recently, the girl came to her village home in Bhola as her mother fell sick and asked for some money from Sohel for her mother’s treatment.

In response, Sohel asked her to meet at Dakkhin Aicha area to take the amount.

As she went there on Saturday afternoon, Sohel and two of his friends took the girl to a remote coconut garden in Char Kukri Mukri and gang-raped her.

Later, they arranged a trawler with the help of two other friends and forced the girl to board the vessel where she was subjected to a gang-rape once again.

In mid-river, the trawler’s propeller got tangled with a fishing net and it got stuck, the OC said.

The five accused were produced before a court last evening, while the girl was sent to the hospital for medical tests, the OC added.

Meanwhile, in Narayanganj, police yesterday arrested three people in a case filed over gang-raping a woman in Raupganj upazila on Wednesday.

The arrestees are Sahar Ali, 30, Rakib alias Rocky, 35, and his wife Farzana Begum, 25. All of them are residents of the same upazila.

Police said the victim and Farzana were friends.

On the day of the incident, Farzana took the woman to one of her relatives’ house in Masumabad area in the upazila where Rakib, Sahar Ali and another male person were present, said Azhar Ali, inspector of Bhulta police outpost under Rupganj Police Station.

At one stage, Farzana left the scene as part of their plan and the three gang-raped the woman, the inspector said.

The victim filed a case against the four yesterday morning.

Our Jhalakathi and Narayanganj correspondents contributed to this report.

Source: The Daily Star