rape
Man sentenced to life for rape, murder of doctor in India
An Indian court sentenced a police volunteer to life imprisonment on Monday after he was found guilty of raping and murdering a trainee doctor last year, an incident that sparked nationwide protests over women's safety and led to a swift trial in the country’s slow-moving justice system, reports AP.
Sanjay Roy, 33, who has maintained his innocence throughout, has the option to appeal the ruling in a higher court.
The death of the 31-year-old doctor, who was on duty at a hospital in Kolkata, brought attention to the persistent issue of violence against women in India. The woman's bloodied body was discovered on August 9 last year in the seminar hall of the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital. An autopsy revealed she had been strangled and sexually assaulted.
A trainee doctor is raped and killed in India, sparking protests and an attack at a medical college
Federal police, who took over the investigation, argued that the crime warranted the death penalty. The victim’s parents also demanded the death penalty for Roy, expressing concerns that others may have been involved in the crime.
Initially, Kolkata police handled the investigation, but it was later transferred to federal authorities after allegations that state officers mishandled the case.
Following the attack, doctors and medical students across India staged protests, calling for enhanced security. Thousands of women took to the streets, demanding quick justice for the victim.
Roy was arrested the day after the crime, and court proceedings began in November. In response to the assault, India’s Supreme Court established a national task force to explore ways to improve safety in government hospitals.
In India, many crimes against women go unreported due to the stigma surrounding sexual violence and a lack of trust in the police. Women’s rights advocates highlight that the issue is especially severe in rural areas, where victims of sexual assault often face community shaming and families worry about their reputation.
The 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a New Delhi bus sparked widespread protests across the country. This led to tougher penalties for such crimes, the creation of fast-track courts for rape cases, and the introduction of the death penalty for repeat offenders. Four men convicted for the 2012 crime were executed in 2020.
In 2013, rape laws were revised to criminalise stalking and voyeurism and to lower the age at which individuals could be tried as adults from 18 to 16.
Sanjay Roy found guilty in RG Kar Medical College rape-murder case
However, activists argue that the tougher sentencing requirements have not deterred rapes, as the number of reported rape cases continues to rise. In 2022, police recorded 31,516 rape cases, marking a 20% increase from the previous year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
3 weeks ago
Youth arrested over raping street child in Dhaka
Police have arrested a 19-year-old youth over raping a 10-year-old flower seller under the Shahbagh metro rail station in the capital.
Ramna Police Station Inspector (Investigation) Md Tarekul Islam said the youth, named Raihan, was arrested on Wednesday night.
Hearing screams, passersby came forward and detained the youth, he said.
The girl was rescued with serious injuries and admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
The girl lives with his grandmother in Shahbagh area and sells flowers.
A case will be filed, added the OC.
3 weeks ago
Man arrested for raping teenager in Khagrachari
A man was arrested in a case filed for raping a 16-year-old girl in Pachmaile area of Khagrachari Sadar Upazila on Friday.
The arrestee is Gopinath Tripura, 22, son of Olod Mohan Tripura of the upazila.
"On November 27, the accused violated the victim in the forest adjacent to the road in the Pachmaile area," said Abdul Baten Mridha, officer-in-charge (OC) of the Khagrachari Sadar Police Station.
Gopinath attempted to strangle the victim after the rape. According to the OC, the accused Gopinath abandoned the victim when she became unconscious, believing her dead.
Later, a case was filed at Khagrachari Sadar Police Station following a complaint lodged by the victim's mother.
According to locals, the victim was taken to Khagrachari Modern District Sadar Hospital after being recovered while unconscious.
The OC said, “The victim is in critical condition and receiving treatment at the hospital. She has multiple injury marks on her body.”
The OC further stated that Gopinath would be sent to court in the afternoon.
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2 months ago
2 more arrested over rape on JU campus
Two more suspects were arrested in connection with the rape of a woman after holding her husband captive on the Jahangirnagar University (JU) campus on February 3.
They are Mamunur Rashid alias Mamun, the main plotter of the incident, and Md. Murad.
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Tipped off, RAB-4 conducted drives in the capital’s Farmgate and Naogaon district simultaneously and arrested Mamun and Murad respectively, said RAB Headquarters Legal and Media Wing Assistant Director ASP Al Amin.
Earlier on Feb 4, four people including a Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leader were arrested over the incident.
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The arrestees were identified as Mustafizur Rahman Khan, a student of the 45th batch of International Relations Department and international affairs secretary of BCL, JU unit. The other arrestees are Mostafa Monwar alias Sagar Siddique, Hasanuzzaman, students of International Relations department and Sabbir Hossain, a student of Botany department, for helping the prime accused to escape.
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Meanwhile, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has formed a three-member committee to review the steps taken by Jahangirnagar University (JU) over the rape incident.
UGC Chairman (Additional Charge) Professor Dr Muhammad Alamgir said the committee members will visit the university on Thursday.
1 year ago
62-year-old arrested over raping 5th grader in Narail
Police have arrested a 62-year-old man in a case filed over raping a class five student in Naragati thana of Narail.
The arrestee is Mahbubur Rahman alias Mahbub Sheikh of Chorkhali village of Naragati Police Station.
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He was arrested from Shuktail village in Gopalganj Sadar on Wednesday afternoon, said Naragati Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Md Mostafizur Rahman.
The victim's mother filed a rape case at Naragati Police Station on February 6.
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According to police, on February 4, Mahbubur forcibly took the victim to his son-in-law Rana Sheikh's house and raped her. As the victim started screaming, locals rushed to the spot while the accused fled the spot.
The victim was later taken to Khulna Medical College Hospital for treatment.
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During primary interrogation, the accused confessed to the crime, said police.
The victim gave a statement to the court under section 22 of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act 2000 (Amendment 2003), added the OC.
1 year ago
Husband held captive, wife raped on JU campus
In a harrowing incident at Jahangirnagar University (JU), allegations have emerged against two individuals – including a Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leader – of raping a woman after holding her husband captive in a residential hall.
The incident, which took place on Saturday (February 03, 2024) night around 9:30 pm near the Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall’s adjacent forest, has led to the suspension of the accused from the university unit of BCL.
The accused have been identified as Mostafizur Rahman, a 45th batch student of the Department of International Relations at Jahangirnagar University, and Mamun, a 45-year-old outsider. Mostafizur, a resident student of Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall and the International Affairs Secretary of the university’s Chhatra League unit, is known to be a follower of the unit president Akhtaruzzaman Sohel. Both Mostafizur and Mamun have been on the run since the incident.
Inspector Abdur Rasik of Savar Model Police Station reported that the victim personally informed the police of the ordeal. “We are heading to the scene for preliminary investigation. Further actions will depend on the investigation’s outcome,” he stated.
Following the incident’s exposure, over 50 students staged a protest in front of Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall, demanding answers from the administration with slogans such as “Why are there rapists on campus?” and “We want a rape-free campus.”
The victim, a resident of Ashulia, revealed that the accused Mamun used to rent a room in their house and had prior acquaintance with Mostafizur. Mamun occasionally stayed with Mostafizur in Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall. Mamun had invited her husband to visit the university under the pretext of purchasing furniture.
On the evening of the incident, the victim’s husband informed Mamun about their plan to buy furniture. Mamun then instructed the husband to call his wife to the university, suggesting she bring some clothes for Mamun as he would be staying on campus for a few days.
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Subsequently, Mostafizur and Mamun confined the victim’s husband in room 317 of the ‘A’ block of Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall. When the woman arrived with the clothes, Mamun took them and later deceived her into going to the forested area near the hall under the pretense of meeting her husband from another gate, where she alleges both men raped her.
Despite multiple attempts to contact Mostafizur, he remained unresponsive. His phone was later found to be turned off.
Professor Sabbir Alam, provost of Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall, stated, “I have heard about the incident. Actions will be taken based on the investigation.” Efforts are underway to identify the accused through CCTV footage.
Akhtaruzzaman Sohel, president of the university unit of Chhatra League, announced that Mostafizur had been temporarily expelled from the organization, with recommendations for permanent expulsion to be sent to the central committee.
ASM Firoz-ul-Hasan, the university’s proctor, affirmed, “Regardless of who is involved, we will ensure punishment through both law and university regulations.”
Read more: Youth’s body cut into nine pieces recovered; ex-BCL leader, 4 others arrested
1 year ago
3 get life imprisonment in Barishal for killing girl after rape
A Barishal court sentenced three people to life imprisonment for killing a nine-year-old girl after rape in 2016.
The convicts are—Based Khan, 48, son of Abdul Aziz and Shahrier Shakil Khan, 27, son of Matier Rahman of Uttar Sagardi in Barishal city while another was an adolescent.
Based was tried in absentia.
Barishal Woman and Child Repression Prevention Tribunal Judge Md Yarab Hossain handed down the punishment.
The court also fined them Tk 50,000 each, in default, to suffer six months more in rigorous imprisonment.
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According to the prosecution, Tonny, daughter of Tulu Palwan of Nobogram area in the city had gone out to call her father at Zia Road upon the request of her mother Sumi Akter and went missing on September 18, 2016.
Later, she was found dead at a waterbody adjacent to their house on the following day.
Madrasa teacher sentenced to life imprisonment for raping student in Chapainawabganj
Tulu Palwan filed a case in this connection and police detained Shakil and the adolescent boy for interrogation. They also gave confessional statements admitting their guilt before the court.
Police submitted chargesheet against the trio on June 22, 2017.
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1 year ago
5 to die for killing jute mill worker after rape in Faridpur
A Faridpur court on Monday convicted five people and sentenced them to death for killing a jute mill worker after rape in 2019.
The condemned convicts are—Chunnu Shikdar, Nazmul Hossain, Islam Mir, Atier Molla and Nasir Khan Nayon of Madhukhali upazila.
Faridpur Woman and Child Repression Prevention Tribunal Judge Hafizur Rahman handed down the punishment.
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The court also fined them Tk 1 lakh each.
According to the prosecution, Chunnu, a human hauler driver, took Kajol Rekha Kajoli, 32, a worker of Rajdharpur Pride Jute Mill in Madhukhali upazila, to a banana orchard at Rajdharpur when she was returning to her home around 11:30 pm after completing overtime duty on October 15, 2019.
Man gets death penalty for killing wife in Dinajpur
The four other convicts saw them and they also violated the woman in turns.
Later, they strangled the woman to death with a scarf and fled the scene.
On the following day, police recovered the body from the spot.
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Kallyani Biswas, mother of Kajol filed a case with Madhukhali Police Station.
On December 31, 2019, police submitted chargesheet against five people.
1 year ago
8th grader held hostage, raped; 3 fugitive convicts held in Dhaka’s Bhatara
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested three fugitive convicts, who were sentenced to life term jail in a case over violating an 8th grader for four years after kidnap, from Bhatara area of the capital on Friday .
The arrestees were Bakul Mia, son of Meda Sheikh, his son Shakil, 22, and daughter Shimu Begum.
Tipped off, a team of Rab-2 conducted a drive in the area and arrested them, said a press release of Rab.
25-year-old man arrested over Dhanmondi rape incident
According to the press release, Shakil abducted a class VIII student from the city's Gulshan area on way home from school in February, 2019.
Shakil kept her confined till January 17, 2022 after giving sedatives with the help of other convicts. During this period Shakil used to rape the girl.
Fugitive war crimes accused arrested in Cox’s Bazar
On January 17, 2022, the girl managed to flee and returned to her house.
A complaint was lodged with police over the kidnap and rape.
In 2022, the Women and Child Repression Tribunal Judge sentenced the trio to life imprisonment in the case.
The trio served jail for three months and later they went into hiding after securing bail in the case.
DB arrests 4 in connection with police constable's death from stabbing in Dhaka's Farmgate
1 year ago
Trial opens in E. Jean Carroll’s rape lawsuit against Trump
A nearly 30-year-old rape claim against Donald Trump went to trial Tuesday as jurors in the federal civil case heard a former advice columnist’s allegation of being attacked in a luxury department store dressing room. The former president says nothing happened between them.
E. Jean Carroll will testify that what unfolded in a few minutes in a fitting room in 1996 “would change her life forever,” one of her lawyers, Shawn Crowley, said in an opening statement.
“Filled with fear and shame, she kept silent for decades. Eventually, though, silence became impossible,” Crowley said. And when Carroll broke that silence in a 2019 memoir, the then-president “used the most powerful platform on Earth to lie about what he had done, attack Ms. Carroll’s integrity and insult her appearance.”
Trump — who wasn't in court but hasn't ruled out testifying —- has called Carroll a “nut job” who fabricated the rape claim to sell her book. Defense attorney Joe Tacopina told jurors Tuesday that her story was wildly implausible and short of evidence.
He accused her of pursuing the case for money, status and political reasons, urging the jurors from heavily Democratic New York to put aside any animus they themselves might hold toward the Republican ex-president and ex-New Yorker.
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“You can hate Donald Trump. That’s OK. But there’s a time and a secret place for that. It’s called a ballot box in an election. It’s not here in a court of law,” Tacopina told the six-man, three-woman panel. “Nobody’s above the law, but no one is beneath it.”
The trial stands to test Trump's “Teflon Don” reputation for shaking off serious legal problems and to reprise accounts of the type of sexual misconduct that rocked his 2016 presidential campaign as he seeks office again. Trump denies all the claims, saying they are falsehoods spun up to damage him.
The trial comes a month after he pleaded not guilty in an unrelated criminal case surrounding payments made to bury accounts of alleged extramarital sex.
Carroll's suit is a civil case, meaning that no matter the outcome, Trump isn't in danger of going to jail. She is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a retraction of Trump statements that she alleges were defamatory.
Among his comments: “She’s not my type," which her lawyers say was tantamount to calling her too unattractive to assault.
Jurors — whose names are being kept secret to prevent potential harassment — range in age from 26 to 66 and include a janitor, a physical therapist and people who work in security, health care collections, a library, a high school and other settings.
They were questioned about their news-watching habits (which vary from watching “everything” to ignoring it all), political donations and support for any of a roster of right- and left-wing groups. They were asked, too, whether they used Trump’s social media platform, read Carroll’s former Elle magazine column and even if they’d seen Trump’s former reality show “The Apprentice” — and whether any of these and other matters would make it difficult for them to be fair.
Carroll, 79, is expected to testify as soon as Wednesday that a chance encounter with Trump, 76, turned violent, and that he defamed her when responding to the rape allegations.
She says that after she ran into the future president at Manhattan's Bergdorf Goodman on an unspecified spring Thursday evening in 1996, he invited her to shop with him for a woman's lingerie gift before they teased one another to try on a bodysuit. Carroll says they ended up alone together in a store dressing room, where Trump pushed her against a wall and raped before she fought him off and fled.
Her suit argues that she was psychologically scarred by the alleged attack, and then subjected to an onslaught of hateful messages and reputational damage when Trump painted her as a liar.
“This case is Ms. Carroll's chance to clear her name, to pursue justice,” Crowley said.
Tacopina countered that it was “an affront to justice.”
He suggested her account of being violently raped in the Fifth Avenue store, with no one around, was preposterous. Also, Tacopina noted, there was no record that Carroll had any injuries, sought out a doctor or therapist, asked the store about surveillance video or even wrote about the alleged attack in her diary.
“It all comes down to: Do you believe the unbelievable?” he asked in his opening statement.
Also Read: Trump's day in court as criminal defendant: What to know
Jurors are also expected to hear from two other women who say they were sexually assaulted by Trump. The jury will also see the infamous 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump is heard asserting that celebrities can grab women sexually without asking.
Carroll's allegations normally would be too old to bring to court. But in November, New York state enacted a law allowing for suits over decades-old sexual abuse claims.
The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.
1 year ago