After finishing her shift at a small eatery in Baro Mile, a hardworking woman began her usual ride home with her husband, unaware that the night in kushtia would take a tragic turn.

What followed in a nearby litchi orchard of Bheramara upazila will scar the couple forever.

A group of five men intercepted the three-wheeler. The 26-year-old woman and her husband were no match for the sudden violence.

The men dragged them into the orchard, tied the husband to a tree and began to beat him. Then, the woman was taken deeper into the trees and raped.

“I could hear her screaming,” the husband later told police, choking on his words. “I couldn’t do anything. They had tied me up like an animal.”

The alleged perpetrators, all from Bahirchar union, were swiftly detained by the police. Among them are Kalu Pramanik, 46, Murshid Sheikh, 45, Titu Mondal alias Tipu, 42, Ejajul, 42, and van driver Rubel Ali, 24.

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Police said that three of them have confessed to the crime.

But even after enduring such a harrowing ordeal, the couple’s trauma did not end there.

According to locals, the woman and her husband were taken to Bheramara Police Station after residents, hearing her desperate screams, called the national emergency helpline 999.

Shockingly, they alleged that the couple was held at the station overnight without sending the woman for urgent medical examination. “They were kept there till 9am the next day,” a resident said.

When asked, officer-in-charge (OC) of Bheramara Police Station Abdur Rob denied that the couple was kept without proper care.

Superintendent of Police Md Mizanur Rahman assured that the woman would be taken for medical tests once the formal complaint process was completed. “Police detained five suspects soon after receiving the complaint,” he added.

This isn’t just another police case, another line in a register. It is the story of a woman who survived a night of unimaginable brutality, and of a man who stood powerless as criminals tore through their lives.

Khagrachhari rape underscores grave threat to women and children’s safety: MJF

In just the first three months of 2024, at least 114 women fell victim to rape in Bangladesh, according to a report released by Ain o Salish Kendra yesterday.

Among the victims, three were killed following the assault and one took her own life, the human rights group said, highlighting the ongoing crisis of violence against women.