A court in Gazipur has sentenced a man to life in prison with hard labour for abducting and raping a seventh-grade student of a Qawmi madrasa. Md Faruk Mia was also fined Tk 20,000, with two more months in prison if he does not pay. The court acquitted the other accused, Md Habibur Rahman, because the charge that he helped in the abduction was not proved beyond reasonable doubt.
Judge Farzana Ferdous of the Gazipur Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal delivered the verdict on Tuesday, October 27. Faruk was absent when it was announced, as he is on the run. The court ordered a conviction warrant and an arrest warrant against him.
According to the case records and court sources, the girl, then 13, was abducted from in front of her home in the Konabari area of Gazipur at around 7pm on June 5, 2015.
The prosecution said Faruk and his associates took her away in a microbus. She was then held at the house of Faruk’s sister and raped. Police rescued her three days later. Her mother filed the case.
After the investigation, police submitted a charge sheet against Faruk, and against Habibur Rahman for helping in the abduction, on June 9, 2019. According to the case records, Faruk has been on the run since he was granted bail on June 20, 2018. The court said in its verdict that the charges against him had been proved beyond reasonable doubt. The charge against Habibur under section 30 of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000, was not proved, and he was acquitted.
The tribunal’s public prosecutor, Md Abu Taher Nayan, said: “We have got justice. The present judge has taken special steps to reduce the backlog of cases. We hope this will ease the long suffering of those seeking justice.”
He added: “The plaintiff is satisfied with this verdict.”
Court sources said Judge Farzana Ferdous joined the tribunal on September 29. She was previously a judge of the special district and sessions court in Mymensingh. When she took over, about 7,000 cases were pending before the tribunal, and she has disposed of 120 cases in roughly a month, the sources said. She has moved to settle long-pending and high-profile cases quickly, and is also giving priority to settling cases lawfully and promptly when both sides want a compromise, they said.
People involved see the effort as important given the huge backlog. Faster disposal would cut the long wait, time and money spent by litigants, and is expected to help build public trust in the justice system.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report