On February 26, 2013, Gita Rani1 (18) a student of 12th grade and belonging to the minority Hindu Community under Ashashuni Police Station in Satkhira, went to visit a fair in Bamondanga village. At around 8:30pm she was seen to have been in a conversation with an old acquaintance Anup Mondol at the east side of that fair. All of a sudden a group of 7-8 miscreants rushed towards them aggressively, beat up Anup and robbed both their cell phones and Anup’s wallet. At one point due to their incessant beating Anup got fainted, and then they forcefully took Gita to a marsh land (normally a paddy field which is inundated during monsoon season) in Bamondanga where she was raped by four persons. After committing rape, on February 27, 2013 at around 4:00 in the morning, one of the rapists left Gita at a house in a nearby Baintola village. From a woman in that house, Gita came to know about Alamgir, who dropped her at that house. From there at around 8:00pm, an unidentified man and a lady took a bruised and devastated Gita to a place named Tetultala by a motorcycle. While struggling to reach home from Tetultala, Gita was seen by her teacher who helped her to return home. Gita was admitted at the Ashashuni Upazila Health Complex on February 28 and she was treated there until March 03, 2013. During this period Gita’s father and maternal uncle went to the Ashashuni Police Station six times, in order to file a case for gang rape of Gita. However, Mohammad Emdad Hossain, Officer-in-Charge of the Ashashuni Police Station did not pay heed. The Officer-in-Charge finally recorded the statement when Gita herself appeared with her family members on March 6, 2013 at the police station. Gita told him that she was abducted from the fair and then raped by Alamgir and three other strangers whom she never saw before. Following instruction of the police in-charge, a man in the police station named Pobitro Kumar Das prepared the FIR (First Information Report). He did not read out the FIR to Gita but asked her to sign on it. At the FIR it is mentioned that Gita was gang raped by five persons. The FIR recorded Anup Kumar, Himangsu, Mohammad Rabbi, Yahiya and Kamalesh as the accused. A case was filed under section 7/9(3)/30 of the Prevention of Repression against Women and Children Act, 2000 (amended 2003). The case number is 6; Date: 06/03/2013. But Gita alleged that, she was raped by four persons who were unknown to her but she came to know about Alamgir, a local journalist. It is revealed through Odhikar’s fact finding that, Alamgir claimed Odhikar Fact Finding Report/Gita Rani/Ashashuni, Satkhira/February 26, 2013/Page No-2 himself as a journalist of ‘Doinik Kafela’ and ‘Radio Nolta’, however at present he is not employed as a journalist by any media but by using false visiting card he is involved with illegal and antisocial activities at the locality.. Three of the five persons mentioned in the FIR, Anup Mondol (police in FIR wrote his name as Anup Kumar), Himangsu and Kamalesh were know to Gita and not rapists. She also stated that she does not know Mohammad Rabbi and Yahiya, but their names have been written in the FIR as rapists. Moreover, in the FIR, OC Mohammad Emdad ordered to state Alamgir’s name as the person responsible for saving Gita’s life instead of putting him as one of the accused. Besides putting false names; for the purpose of filing the case, the Officer-in-Charge took a bribe of Tk 5000/- (although he initially demanded Tk 15,000/-) from Gita’s uncle. It is to be noted that filing FIR is a right of the voctim and is provided without any cost as per law in any police station.
fact-finding-rape-Satkhira-2013-eng (full text in English, PDF)
fact-finding-rape-Satkhira-2013-bang (full text in Bangla, PDF)
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