A court in Sunamganj has placed a bus driver on a three-day remand in connection with a case filed for attempting to rape a college student on a moving bus in Derai upazila of the district.
Judicial Magistrate Ragib Nur passed the order on Monday after police produced Shahid Mia, 25, before the court in the morning.
Although Derai police station Sub-Inspector (SI) Rajesh Barua, also the investigating officer of the case, sought five days to grill the accused in the case, the court granted police three days for interrogation.
Earlier, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police apprehended Shahid at the old bus station in Sunamganj town around 6am on Saturday when he reached there from Dhaka.
He was then taken to the CID headquarters in the capital.
The CID personnel handed him over to Derai police on Sunday night.
On December 28, Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) arrested the driver's assistant, Rashid Ahmed, at Burairgaon in Chhatak upazila of Sunamganj.
After the arrest of the driver, CID held a press conference on Sunday afternoon at its headquarters where Additional Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Hasib Aziz said the bus driver of Fahad and Maisha Paribahan and his assistant confessed to the attempted rape of the college student.
He said that Rashid already gave a confessional statement in court which matched the initial information obtained from Shahid.
Describing the incident that took place on December 26, the additional DIG said: "A girl who studies in 11th grade was going to Derai from Lamakazi in Sylhet. She was supposed to get off the Sunamganj-bound bus 16km before its final destination.
"All the other passengers got off the bus before reaching there and, seeing that there were no passengers on the bus except the girl, the driver asked his assistant to steer the bus and attempted to rape the girl on the moving vehicle," he added.
The police official continued: "The driver grabbed the girl by her hair and took her towards the back end of the bus. When the young woman tried to save herself by putting her bag in front of her, driver Shahid yanked the bag and ripped it up.
"She then somehow managed to fend him off, sprinted to the front end, jumped off the bus through the door and started screaming. The perpetrators sped away when locals arrived. The girl was taken to the upazila health complex and later shifted to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College and Hospital."
They intended to gang-rape the girl, he said.
The girl's father filed a case under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act with Derai police station the night of the incident, against three people — the bus driver, his assistant, and the bus conductor.
Police are still trying to arrest Abu Bakkar, the conductor of the bus.
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