A interim mosque imam in central Bangladesh has been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually abusing a ten-year-old student inside a religious learning centre.
The verdict was handed down on Sunday afternoon by Judge Shamima Parveen of the Faridpur Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal. Along with the custodial sentence, the convict, 24-year-old Maulana Ariful Islam, was ordered to pay a fine of 50,000 Bangladeshi Taka. Should he fail to pay the financial penalty, he will be required to serve an additional year in prison.
The convict, who served as a part-time imam and maktab (religious primary school) teacher at a local mosque in Dayarampur village within the Ramkantapur union of Nagarkanda upazila, was present in the dock when the judgment was delivered. He was subsequently led away under heavy police escort to begin his prison sentence.
According to case documents and court proceedings, the victim is a third-grade pupil at the nearby Haveli Dayarampur Government Primary School. Alongside his duties leading congregation prayers at the village mosque, Islam conducted daily morning classes teaching local children basic Quranic recitation and Islamic fundamentals.
The incident occurred on the morning of 5 October 2024. Heavy rain that morning had kept other young children away, leaving the ten-year-old girl as the sole attendee at the mosque sanctuary.
Taking advantage of the situation, Islam summoned the child into his private quarters adjoining the prayer hall. Court filings detail how he initially instructed her to massage his body before making explicit and indecent proposals. When the girl resisted, he threatened her and instructed her to undress, attempting to sexually abuse her shortly thereafter.
Demonstrating remarkable composure under duress, the young girl feigned thirst and asked permission to get a drink of water. Once outside the room, she fled straight to her family residence and recounted the trauma to her relatives.
Outraged by the revelation, the victim’s family, supported by local villagers, apprehended the cleric and turned him over to law enforcement officers. Later that same day, the victim’s mother formally lodged a complaint at the Nagarkanda Police Station.
Following a comprehensive inquiry, Sub-Inspector Shahidul Islam of Nagarkanda Police Station submitted a formal charge sheet naming Ariful Islam as the sole accused in the offence. The prosecution presented witnesses, medical evaluations, and circumstantial evidence over the course of the trial, establishing the defendant’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Expressing satisfaction with the judicial outcome, Public Prosecutor Advocate Golam Robbani Bhuiyan Ratan confirmed that justice had been served through due legal process, reinforcing the message that perpetrators of child exploitation will face severe accountability under Bangladeshi law.
