BANGLADESH: SUSPECTS CHARGED IN RAPE OF PASTOR’S DAUGHTER

Investigation, DNA test point toward two alleged rapists; one remains at large.

DHAKA, Bangladesh, October 1 (Compass Direct News) – Police have submitted a charge sheet to a district court accusing two persons of raping a pastor’s daughter in the village of Laksmipur, said a state prosecutor.

Sayed Tariqul Islam told Compass that police submitted the charge sheet on Sept. 7 based on an extensive investigation following a DNA test that turned out positive. Pastor Motilal Das, who has long received threats from villagers upset with his success as an evangelist, said that local residents gang-raped his 13-year-old daughter in an attempt to drive him from the area.

State prosecutor Islam said Shakil Ahmed Shebul and Dulal Miah are charged with raping Elina Das at 3 a.m. on May 2. If convicted, they will receive life terms in prison, he said.

“The DNA report is everything to prove them guilty, and I expect that they will be punished with life-term imprisonment,” said Islam.

Previously a medical college had submitted a false forensic test report indicating no evidence of sexual assault. Villagers in Laksmipur, in Fulbaria sub-district 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Dhaka, believe relatives of the accused men paid off the Mymensingh Medical College Hospital Forensic Department to fabricate the false test results.

Pastor Das has said relatives of the alleged rapists have offered him a large sum of money to withdraw the case or settle out of court – while continuing to threaten him. He had found his daughter lying unconscious in front of his house early in the morning of May 2, he said, after five men from Mymensingh district raped her.

The charge sheet submitted by police and the positive DNA report state that the girl’s clothes were torn and marked with the semen of Shebul. A close neighbor of Pastor Das, Shebul applied for bail on Tuesday (Sept. 29), but the court refused to grant it, said Islam.

Miah remains at large. Local police inspector Tarapod Shikder told Compass that assiduous efforts were underway to arrest him.

Pastor Das told Compass that he was dismayed that the charge sheet did not require Shebul to be taken on remand by police for interrogation.

“If the arrested person was held on remand for interrogation, police would get more information regarding other rapists,” Pastor Das.

Inspector Shikder told him that police had already taken Shebul on remand for interrogation and obtained little information, Pastor Das said.

“Nonetheless,” Pastor Das said, “the charge sheet will help to heal the scars of my grief-stricken daughter if proper justice is done.”

 

Upset Neighbors

Defending the initial false DNA report, Forensic Department head Akhteruzzaman Talukder of Mymensingh Medical College Hospital had told Compass that he did not find any gang-rape injury or trace of forced sexual activity.

Pastor Das’s daughter “might have had a love affair with someone in the village,” Talukder said. “Her lover might have been guarded there by his several friends. When the family members came to know the incident, they cooked it up as gang rape.”

Pastor Das and Muslim villagers were extremely upset by the initial forensic report. He subsequently had his daughter’s clothes tested for DNA profiling at the National Forensic DNA Profiling Laboratory of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

His Muslim neighbors, he said, consider the positive DNA test a ray of hope for proper judgment. Pastor Das acknowledged his gratitude to some of the village neighbors who gave him moral support during that time.

“I cannot express my gratitude in words to some of my Muslim neighbors in the village who gave me courage and moral support to go forward when I got the false forensic report from Mymensingh Medical College,” he said.

When Pastor Das initially went to police to file charges, he said, police were reluctant to register the case.

“Police told me that it was a false case,” he said. “They also said that it was a fabricated drama. Police spoke with my daughter in filthy language and showed prurient interest in the details of the incident in front of us rather than filing the case quickly.”

The U.S. Department of State’s 2008 International Religious Freedom Report, released in Sept. 19, notes that Bangladeshi government officials, “including the police, were often ineffective in upholding law and order and were sometimes slow to assist religious minority victims of harassment and violence.”

The day of the alleged rape, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom announced annual recommendations for countries to be designated “Countries of Particular Concern,” but it did not include Bangladesh.

Rather, the commission put Bangladesh on its “Watch List” due to the nature and extent of violations of religious freedom engaged in or tolerated by the government. Other countries on the Watch List are Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria.

According to USCIRF, Islamist radicalism and violence, the threat of serious violence and continued discrimination against members of religious minority communities remain significant concerns in Bangladesh.

Story from Compass Direct News

BANGLADESH: DNA INDICATES ASSAULT ON PASTOR’S DAUGHTER

Initial forensic test indicating no sexual attack further cast into doubt.

DHAKA, Bangladesh, August 18 (Compass Direct News) – Following a dubious forensics test indicating no evidence of sexual assault, a second DNA test links one of five men accused of gang-raping a village pastor’s daughter to sperm found on her clothing.

Pastor Motilal Das of Laksmipur village says he found his 13-year-old daughter lying unconscious in front of his house early in the morning of May 2 after five men from Mymensingh district raped her. Villagers were upset at his evangelistic efforts and had raped his daughter, according to the pastor, in an effort to drive him from the area.

DNA profiling expert Ahmed Ferdous of the National Forensic DNA Profiling Laboratory of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) told Compass the results of the second test have been sent to police and court officials.

“The profile matched in the test and the DNA report turned out positive, which apparently shows that the girl was raped or sexually assaulted,” Ferdous said.

Villagers in Laksmipur, in Fulbaria sub-district 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital, believe relatives of the accused men paid off the Mymensingh Medical College Hospital Forensic Department, which conducted the first test, to conclude there were no signs of sexual assault.

Mymensingh Medical College Hospital Forensic Department head Akhteruzzaman Talukder denied the accusations, telling Compass that Das’s daughter “might have had a love affair with someone in the village.” (See Compass Direct News, “Rape Case Medical Report in Bangladesh Called False,” June 6.)

Das said relatives of the alleged rapists have offered him a large sum of money to withdraw the case or settle out of court – while continuing to threaten him.

“Some relatives of the rapists told me to compromise with them by withdrawing the case,” he told Compass. “They told me that if I do not compromise with them, they will evict us from the village and our life will be in great danger.”

 

Charges Imminent

The pastor of United Bethany Church said officers told him and his wife that police are continuing the investigation based on the new forensics report, which a police inspector showed to them.

“The police told us the DNA report is positive and it is the acknowledgement of the rape case,” Das said.

Local police inspector Tarapad Shikder told Compass that charges will be filed after the investigation is completed into the alleged rape of Elina Das, who said she was attacked as she went to an outdoor latrine at 3 a.m on May 2.

“Sperm of the of the arrested person has been found on Elina’s clothing according to the DNA report,” Shikder said. “We are investigating the case whether she was raped, and if not, then how is it that the sperm is found on Elina’s clothing.”

While police are still investigating whether the laboratory results indicate rape or sexual molestation, Das said police told him that the new DNA report was sufficient to file charges, he said.

“Police assured me that the charge sheet against the rapists will be submitted to the court soon, and that they do not need any further evidence because the DNA report has everything they need,” the pastor said.

Das and his Muslim neighbors had expressed outrage at the previous forensic report by Mymensingh Medical College Hospital last June. Subsequently the pastor went to DMCH for a second DNA test on June 8.

Babul Mia, a 32-year old Muslim neighbor of Das, said the previous forensic report suggesting that Elina Das may have had a “love affair” with one of the accused men was “an out-and-out lie.”

“The criminals are far too aged – none of them so far identified is her classmate or in the same age range,” Mia said. “What happened to her is inhumane, and I do not find any reason why such a minor girl would be raped. An outburst of religious anger because of their different [Christian] faith could be the cause of this inhuman activity.”

Elina Das has identified two of the alleged rapists and could identify the others if she saw them or their pictures, according to her father. Police have arrested Shebul Miah, 22. The girl identified another suspect, 32-year-old Dulal Miah, alias Dulu, who remains at large.

Muslim villagers and neighbors continued to show their support for pastor Das’ family.

“We, all the people of this area, want that there should be proper judgment of this gang-rape, and this report gave us a ray of hope that the rapists would be punished,” 45-year-old farmer Chan Miah of the same village told Compass. “I pray to almighty Allah that not a single girl in the society does experience such brutality in her life – whether she is Christian, Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim.”  

Report from Compass Direct News