Police in Chattogram have found out that a bus driver and his associates arrested in a case of mugging were also involved in an attempt to rape a garment worker on their moving vehicle.

The two identified as Md Gias Uddin Nayan, 21, and his associate Shimato Dutta, 22 have now been shown arrested in the attempted rape case filed by the woman.

The driver and his associate were arrested from the Chandgaon area on Thursday night in a case filed at the Bandar police station over mugging a passenger. The incident took place on the same bus before the attempted rape, said Kishore Majumder, sub-inspector (SI) of Bandar police station.

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Mugging victim, Palash Kanti lodged a complaint at the police station the same day.

He alleged that three alleged muggers posing as passengers of the bus stabbed him and took away Tk 10,000 in cash and two mobile phones. Later, the bus took him to the City Gate area and forcibly took his PIN number and withdrew Tk 40,800 from her bKash account and then to Chattogram Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), Cinema Palace junction and Bahaddarhat and the money was withdrawn from his bkash account in three phases.

The bus dropped him off at the flyover in Lalkhan Bazar area around 3.30 pm. Then he lodged the complaint after receiving first aid, said the SI.

SI Kishore said, "After scrutinizing the CCTV footage of the area including Nimtala, we found that a rape attempt was made on a garment worker on the same bus earlier."

The 20-year-old garment worker got on the bus with 10-12 other workers to return home around 9pm on May 19. At Bahaddarhat area, when other workers got down, the bus started to move quickly with the lone female worker. At that time, the assistant was driving the bus and the driver tried to rape the girl.

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Later, the woman jumped off of the moving bus to save herself and was seriously injured.

According to police, the victim was rescued unconscious from Bakalia and admitted to CMCH.

After being released from the hospital on May 25, the woman lodged a complaint at the city's Bakalia police station. Police later arrested bus driver Anwar Hossain Tipu and his associate Jony Das. The bus was also seized.