A 44-year-old woman has filed a case against three people, including two alleged police personnel, after reportedly being raped inside the canteen of a moving Kurigram Express train travelling from Dhaka to Kurigram.
The case was filed under Bangladesh’s Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, according to Dulal Uddin, officer-in-charge of Santahar Railway Police Station in Adamdighi, Bogura. One of the accused, 22-year-old canteen worker Abu Bakkar Siddique, has been arrested and sent to court.
The other two accused have been named as unidentified persons in the case. The police have said that the woman told investigators that two of the alleged perpetrators were police personnel, but their identities and alleged involvement are still being investigated.
Abu Bakkar, son of the late Masud Rana, is from Abdulpur village in Lalpur upazila of Natore.
According to police and people familiar with the incident, the woman, who is from Sirajganj, had boarded the Kurigram Express in Dhaka. She was reportedly travelling towards Sirajganj but mistakenly boarded the train without a ticket.
While the train was passing through the Natore area under the jurisdiction of Santahar Railway Police, she allegedly suffered the assault inside the train’s canteen.
Her cries reportedly alerted other passengers, who went to the canteen and found her. The passengers rescued the woman and detained Abu Bakkar before handing him over to the police.
Railway Police Superintendent for the Pakshi region Mehedi Hasan said the woman contacted her son by mobile phone after the train passed Natore station and told him that she had been raped.
Her son subsequently called the national emergency service number 999 and informed police of the incident. Police later took the woman and the detained canteen worker from Parbatipur railway station to Santahar Railway Police Station, Mehedi Hasan said.
The railway police said Abu Bakkar was later shown arrested in the case and produced before a court on Tuesday morning.
Mehedi Hasan said the accused gave a statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure after being taken to court. According to the police official, Abu Bakkar stated that he alone had been involved in the alleged rape.
Such a statement, however, does not by itself settle the allegations against the other two accused. Their identities and any possible involvement remain matters for the investigation and judicial process.
The police have already formed an investigation committee headed by a circle assistant superintendent of police to examine the incident. Members of the railway police security team, including its officer in charge, have also been withdrawn from their duties in connection with the investigation, Mehedi Hasan said.
The case has also raised questions over the role of railway security personnel because of the victim’s allegation that two police officers were involved.
Local journalists have alleged that police officials were reluctant to disclose the identities of the two police personnel or provide details of the case. They have questioned whether the alleged involvement of members of the police was contributing to the lack of information being made public.
Zillur Rahman, president of the Santahar Shahor Press Club, said he had personally gone to the police station on Monday night seeking information about the incident. He said the officer in charge had told him that details would be provided after the case was formally entered.
Rahman said he and senior journalist Rafiqul Islam Montu subsequently left the station, but alleged that the officer did not later provide the requested information and did not answer telephone calls.
He also raised questions over whether there was an attempt to conceal information because of the allegation involving police personnel.
Officer-in-charge Dulal Uddin rejected the suggestion and said there was no provision for providing case details to journalists before an accused had been sent to court.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Shahidul Islam, inspector at the Bogura District Judicial Magistrate Court, confirmed that the court had ordered Abu Bakkar Siddique to be sent to jail.
The investigation is now expected to establish what happened inside the moving train, whether others were involved and the identities and roles of the two unidentified accused. The allegation against the police personnel will also have to be assessed through the investigation and subsequent legal proceedings.
