A Dhaka tribunal has acquitted all five persons accused in the case filed over the reported rape of two female university students at an upscale hotel in the capital’s Banani area in 2017.
Judge Begum Mosammat Kamrun Nahar of the Dhaka’s Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal 7 delivered the verdict on Thursday.
The court acquitted Shafat Ahmed, Nayeem Ashraf, Shadman Sakif, and Shafat’s driver Billal Hossain and bodyguard Rahmat Ali as the charges brought against them had not been proved.
Nothing in the medical report indicated that the two had been raped, the judge said, criticizing the police for being “overzealous”.
The investigating officer of the case had pressed charges against the five accused despite the lack of evidence, said the court.
Case details
After being invited to Shafat’s birthday party, the two women went to The Raintree Dhaka hotel in Banani at around 9pm on March 28, 2017.
Shafat is the son of Dildar Ahmed, one of the owners of Apan Jewellers.
After the rooftop party ended around midnight, Shafat and Nayeem raped the girls in two hotel rooms, according to the case dockets.
On May 6 that year, one of the two rape survivors filed the case with Banani police station, naming Shafat as the key accused.
Afterwards, law enforcers arrested the five from Dhaka and Sylhet. Later, Shafat, Nayeem, Sakif and Billal gave confessional statements before magistrates on different dates.
Police pressed charges against the five on June 8, 2017.
Of the five, Shafat and Nayeem were indicted for rape and the rest for aiding and abetting the crime under Section 9 (1) of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.
On July 13, 2017, the court started the trial after framing charges against the five.
