Police are trying to locate a lawyer who allegedly masterminded the gang-rape of a young woman in a flat in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur.
Police say the accused persons used to film the incidents and then send the clips abroad to the barrister, reportedly an ex-boyfriend of the woman.
The 23-year-old woman named three men and another woman in a case started on Saturday, saying she was kept shackled, raped, sexually abused and tortured for 25 days from Mar 5 in the flat.
On the night of Mar 30, taking advantage of the absence of anyone in the house, she managed to attract the attention of a local individual by screaming through the window. Subsequently, the person called 999, leading to police intervention.
Police arrested the accused, San, 26, Himel, 27, Rocky, 29, and Salma aka Jhumur, 28, the wife of an expatriate – all identified with single names – on Sunday night.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Jashim granted police a three- day custody of the accused for their grilling on Monday.
The judge also ordered police to name in the charge sheet all the people involved in the incident regardless of their influence.
The defence lawyers demanded bail for the accused, claiming that the young woman framed them because she wanted to take revenge on her ex-boyfriend – the barrister living abroad.
Azimul Haque, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, identified the barrister as Masud, without giving the full name or further details.
Azimul said the woman lived with her elder sister as she had no other place to go. Masud took advantage of her condition and used to live with her whenever he returned to Bangladesh.
At one stage, Masud made an arrangement for the woman to live with Salma.
But the woman developed a relationship with San, an acquaintance of Salma.
When Masud came to know about this, he offered Salma money to have the woman tortured and raped by San and his friends, Azimul said.
“We are trying to locate the barrister and bring him to justice,” the police officer said.