Police in Munshiganj have arrested and jailed a local mosque imam on charges of raping a 13-year-old girl under the guise of performing a spiritual exorcism. The accused, identified as 47-year-old Rezaul Bari, was formally shown arrested on Friday morning following a formal complaint lodged by the victim’s mother at Sreenagar Police Station.
Bari, originally from Nazirpur upazila in Pirojpur district, had been serving as the khatib—a senior religious leader who delivers Friday sermons—at a local mosque in Sreenagar. He resided in a rented flat within the Sreenagar Bazar area, where the alleged assault took place late on Thursday night.
According to police officials and accounts from the victim’s family, the teenager had been suffering from persistent, unexplained health issues for some time. Her parents had consulted multiple medical practitioners across the region, yet her condition showed no lasting improvement. Desperate for a cure, they turned to traditional spiritual healing, first taking their daughter to Bari on 20 September.
When the girl’s health deteriorated again earlier this week, her parents contacted the khatib once more. At approximately 10:00 pm on Thursday, they brought the teenager to Bari’s rented residence in Sreenagar Bazar. Family members alleged that Bari took the girl into a separate room on the pretext of expelling evil spirits, or jinn, from her body, and sexually assaulted her there.
Upon learning of the incident, the family immediately approached local law enforcement with a written complaint late Thursday night. Acting swiftly on the report, officers detained Bari from the Sreenagar Bazar area before dawn.
Jewel Mia, Officer-in-Charge of Sreenagar Police Station, confirmed the sequence of legal actions. “Following the written complaint on Thursday night, we took the suspect into custody,” he stated. “The victim’s mother filed a formal rape case on Friday morning, after which the accused was officially arrested and produced before the Munshiganj court at noon.”
Kamrul Islam Mia, Police Inspector at the Munshiganj Court, noted that the magistrate ordered Bari to be sent to jail custody upon the conclusion of the initial hearing. The incident has sparked widespread concern in the locality, highlighting the ongoing vulnerability of minors to exploitation by individuals abusing positions of religious trust in rural communities. Police confirmed that necessary medical examinations for the survivor and further investigations into the case are currently underway.
