A Sri Lankan cricketer charged with sexually assaulting a woman in Australia remained in jail Monday after a court declined his bid for bail. Danushka Gunathilaka was arrested early Sunday at his Sydney hotel and was charged with four counts of sexual intercourse without consent. The 31-year-old had traveled to Australia as part of Sri Lanka’s T20 World Cup team. Under Australian court rules, not all details of the case can be reported. Read more: Phillips century leads New Zealand to big win over Sri Lanka At the Downing Centre Local Court, Magistrate Robert Williams noted Gunathilaka had no criminal history. But the cricketer's application for release was later refused by the court. Outside the court, defense lawyer Ananda Amaranath said the decision was disappointing and his client was considering appealing to the New South Wales state Supreme Court. Gunathilaka's bail application was made in a closed court, after the police prosecutor lodged an application to prevent publication of the facts of the case and the indictment against the 31-year-old. The motion to suppress was opposed by Amaranath and Stephen Coombs, the senior legal counsel for Nationwide News. The pair made similar arguments — that the victim’s name was already prevented from being made public, and further suppression orders were contrary to open justice. Read more: T20 World Cup: Australia beat Sri Lanka by 7 wickets But the judge decided to grant an interim order closing the court from public scrutiny on Monday. That order will be reconsidered on Wednesday. The cricketer had spent a night in custody at the Surry Hills Police Station before appearing in handcuffs and a grey T-shirt via video link at the court. “Yes sir,” he told the court when asked if his video link was working. Gunathilaka travelled to Australia with Sri Lanka’s T20 World Cup team but only played in the team’s first game, a loss against Namibia, before being ruled out of the competition with a hamstring tear. The cricketer had been holding up well considering the circumstances, his lawyer told media outside the court. “He has the full support of the Sri Lankan High Commissioner and the Sri Lankan Cricket Board. So he is okay,” Amaranath said. The left-handed batsman has played nearly 100 T20 and one-day internationals for Sri Lanka and eight test matches. Sri Lanka lost its final group match to England on Saturday in the T20 World Cup and the rest of the team — minus Gunathilaka — left for home on Sunday. In a statement Sunday, Sri Lanka Cricket said it had been notified of the charges, would monitor court proceedings closely and, in consultation with the International Cricket Council, would “expeditiously initiate a thorough inquiry into the matter and take stern action against the player if found guilty.”

Netrakona Social Welfare officer has been stand released from his post on allegations of sexual harassment of some female college students. Abdullah Al Mamun, the alleged officer of sadar upazila was transferred to Sunamganj district on August 2, after the victim students of Social Welfare Department from Netrakona Government Women's College submitted a written complaint, said the authority. The complaint was submitted to the Deputy Director of the Social Welfare Department. Read: Benapole press club president gets death threat According to the complaint, a total of 12 students of the college joined the Social Welfare office for 60 days from July as trainees. Since their joining, alleged Abdullah Al Mamun was sexually harassing them with the threat of decreasing their marks. When contacted, Abdullah Mamun accepted the punitive measure taken against him but refused giving any statement in this regard to the UNB reporter on Sunday.

A Dhaka court on Thursday placed Md Mahbubur Rahman, driver of a Bikash Paribahan bus, on a one-day remand for sexually harassing a college student on a running bus. Judge Syed Mostafa Reza Nur of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court passed the order after Investigation Officer (IO) of the case and Officer In-charge (OC) of Azimpur police outpost Asibuzzaman Asib produced the accused before the court sought a five-day remand. Mahbubur was arrested from Ashulia on Wednesday. Also read: National University expels two students over CU female student's assault According to the case statement, the victim boarded a bus of Bikash paribahan to reach Azimpur from Dhanmondi around 8:40pm on July 24. At one point, she fell asleep in the bus. Around 9:10pm, the victim felt that someone was touching her body. She woke up and found the bus was deserted and the helper of the bus was sitting next to her. The helper grasped the victim’s mouth when she tried to cry for help. She stood up and asked the driver to stop the bus. But the driver increased the speed instead of stopping the bus. Finally, the victim jumped off the running bus to escape. Also read: Overzealous woman in viral incident at Narsingdi station held for assault Later, she wrote a post on facebook from where Lalbagh police came to know the matter. Members from Lalbagh police station identified the victim based from the facebook post and collected information from her. Using modern technology, police seized the bus and came to know about the driver. The victim later lodged a complaint with Lalbagh police station in this regard, based on which the arrest was made. END/UNB/COrr/AB/FH/2011 Hrs

Actor Amber Heard tearfully told jurors Thursday that Johnny Depp sexually assaulted her with a liquor bottle in an alcohol-fueled rage. The March 2015 incident in Australia, where Depp was filming the fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, is sharply disputed and has been a focal point of the four-week civil trial in Fairfax, Virginia. The night ended with the tip of Depp’s middle finger cut off, and him writing vulgar messages in blood on the walls of the house. Depp denies assaulting her in any way and says his finger was severed when Heard threw a vodka bottle at him; Heard said she’d taken sleeping pills after she was attacked and was not awake when the finger was severed. Also read:Depp trial: Psychologist testifies actor assaulted Heard The graphic description of the sexual assault left Heard fighting for her composure as she described it to jurors. She said Depp had been angry as soon as she arrived in Australia, roughly a month after the couple had married in February 2015. He was accusing her of sleeping with co-stars in her movies, including Billy Bob Thornton and Eddie Redmayne, with whom she’d just shot the film “The Danish Girl” — accusations she denied. The fight escalated to the point where he threw her into a ping-pong table, breaking it, Heard testified. He ripped off her nightgown, and Heard said she was naked and exposed as she was assaulted. “I couldn’t get up. I thought he was punching me,” she said. “I could just feel this pressure on my pubic bone.” She thought he was assaulting her with her fist, but later figured out that she was being assaulted with a bottle, and realized that there had been numerous bottles broken in the fight. “I looked around and saw so much broken glass. I just remember thinking, ‘Please God, please don’t be broken,’” she said. Heard described bizarre details in the aftermath of the attack, including seeing her shredded burgundy nightgown used to wrap a raw steak that had been left out. She said that when Depp’s security team finally arrived to tend to his severed finger, Depp was still trying to leave vulgar messages for her, but was trying to write them by urinating on the wall. Much of the trial testimony has been repetitive of a civil suit Depp filed against a British newspaper. A judge there ruled against Depp in 2020, finding that Heard had in fact been assaulted multiple times by Depp. But the sexual assault allegations described by Heard on Thursday were not publicly aired in the U.K trial. Depp is suing Heard in Virginia for libel over an op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” His lawyers say he was defamed by the 2018 article even though it never mentioned his name. Earlier in her testimony Thursday, Heard testified that Depp surrounded himself with an entourage of enablers to shield him from the consequences of his drug and alcohol use. She described an incident that has already come up at trial, a May 2014 plane ride from Boston to Los Angeles. According to Heard, Depp was jealous and irate that she was making a movie with actor James Franco that included a kissing scene. “He hated, hated James Franco,” she said. Also read:Kylie Jenner testifies she warned brother about Blac Chyna As soon as Depp stepped into the private plane, he began berating her, she said. She got up and walked away, but Depp followed her. At one point, he slapped her, Heard testified. Later, she said, he kicked her, and not one person on board intervened on her behalf. “I felt this boot in my back,” she said. “I fell to the floor. And no one said anything. No one did anything. You could have heard a pin drop. I just remember feeling so embarrassed.” Depp, who testified earlier in the trial, described the incident differently. He denied that he’d drank excessively before getting on the plane, and said Heard initiated an argument and pursued him until he felt compelled to hide in a bathroom. But jurors heard a recording Heard made toward the end of the incident, in which it sounds like Depp is howling and babbling incoherently. And the jury has seen a text message Depp sent his friend Paul Bettany shortly after the flight, in which he says he’s going to “properly stop the booze thing” because the flight got “ugly.” He also texted Bettany saying, “I’m admittedly too f——- in the head to spray my rage at the one I love for little reason as well.” Heard has testified that she was physically and sexually assaulted on multiple occasions by Depp, typically when he was drunk or high on drugs. Depp has denied ever hitting her, but Heard’s lawyers have said his denials lack credibility in part because he can’t remember what he’s done when he blacks out. Depp has said Heard greatly exaggerates his drinking, and that he tolerates his liquor well. Friends, family and employees of Depp have taken the stand and backed up his contention. But Heard said that’s part of the problem: She said Depp has a team around him that cleans him up when he gets sick, and enables him to go about his business without acknowledging the consequences of his drinking.

Sexual assaults on women continue unabated in Bangladesh, despite the government introducing death penalty for rape in 2020. On Friday night, another woman was allegedly violated by four men in front of her helpless husband. The alleged crime occurred around 10.30 pm near the Tetultala railway crossing in the Khanjahan Ali locality of Khulna city, when the couple was passing through the area. The four forcibly dragged the couple to a garage, where they tied up the man with a rope and took turns to rape the 27-year-old woman. Her ordeal continued for nearly an hour -- all this while, her helpless husband watched in horror, according to police. READ: Gang rape victim rescued after 999 call Based on the woman's complaint, an FIR for gang-rape was lodged against the four men -- identified as Quamrul, Jibon, Summon and Ala -- at Khanjahan Ali police station on Saturday morning.  "The woman is recuperating at the one-stop crisis centre of Khulna Medical College and Hospital," said Prabir Kumar Biswas, officer-in-charge. "Efforts are on to nab the perpetrators of the heinous crime." Bangladesh's rape epidemic There has been no let up in the number of sexual crimes against women despite the introduction of stricter laws in Bangladesh in November 2020. Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) data shows that 1,018 children were raped in 2020 alone, but only 683 police cases had been filed. Also, 116 survivors were six years old or below. Overall, 1,627 rape cases were reported in 2020 and 53 of the women were killed by the perpetrators while 14 took their own lives, as per the data. However, ASK's data is just the tip of the iceberg, according to aid agencies, who report that most women are too afraid to report rape. In October 2020, the country was rocked by protests after a woman was allegedly attacked and raped in Noakhali. In November, 2020, Bangladesh introduced capital punishment for rape, following days of protests against sexual violence against women in several cities across the country. READ: Teenager gang-raped in N'ganj But human rights organisations say the move will not solve the country's rape crisis, as the survivors of the heinous crime are often stigmatised in the society.

The officer- in Charge and an inspector of Ujirpur Police Station in Barisal were suspended on Monday over sexually assaulting a woman during remand. The OC was identified as Ziaul Ahsan and the inspector as Mainul Islam. Read: Madrasa teacher in Feni sexually assaulted 11-year-old student Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Bangladesh Police(Barishal range) SM Akhtaruzzaman confirmed the development to UNB. “We withdrew them after receiving a complaint of custodial harassment. A departmental case will also be filed against them,” he said. The woman was arrested in connection to a murder case on June 28. Read: CTG madrasa cook arrested for sexually assaulting students Police  produced her before a court that placed her on a two-day remand on June 30. She was again produced before the court on Friday following her remand. That is when she brought allegations of sexual harassment and torture during her remand.

A class four student was  killed reportedly after rape at Lalitnagar village in Godagari upazila of Rajshahi district early Saturday. The deceased was identified as Sumaiya Khatun, 11, daughter of Anwar Hossain of the village. Read: Woman kidnapped from Dhaka kitchen market, raped by 3 Mahmudul Hasan, officer-in-charge of Godagari Kakonhat police camp, said Sumaiya went to bed after watching TV on Saturday night. When her parents woke up in the morning they did not find her in her room. After a frantic search, they found the body of Sumaiya under a pile of paddy husk. On information, police recovered the body and sent to Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital morgue. Read:31-yr-old raped by three in Sylhet Police suspected that the girl was killed after rape sometime in the night. Police are trying to identify the culprits, said the OC. Bangladesh's rape epidemic Sexual assaults on women continue unabated in Bangladesh, despite the government introdued death penalty for rapes last year. Read: TikTok out-of-control: Teen goes for shoot, gets raped Earlier last month, a police headquarters report said that 26,695 rape cases were filed across the country in the past five years. Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) data shows that 1,018 children were raped last year alone, but only 683 police cases had been filed. Also, 116 survivors were six years old or below. Overall, 1,627 rape cases were reported last year and 53 of the women were killed by the perpetrators while 14 took their own lives, as per the data. However, ASK's data is just the tip of the iceberg, according to aid agencies, who report that most women are too afraid to report rape. Read:Rape on moving bus in Savar: 5 put on remand In October 2020, the country was rocked by protests after a woman was allegedly attacked and raped in Noakhali. In November last year, Bangladesh introduced capital punishment for rape, following days of protests against sexual violence against women in several cities across the country.

Popular Dhallywood actress Pori Moni has praised the police for what she called 'magic' in apprehending those she accused of attempted rape and murder. “The role of the police in arresting the perpetrators was like magic. I never thought they would be arrested so soon,” said Pori, real name Shamsunnahar Smriti, in remarks to journalists outside the Detective Branch of police office Tuesday. “Now I believe that I will get justice, and the accused will be punished through a fair trial,” she added, looking much more buoyed than the distressed, helpless woman who appeared before the media on Sunday, and before any arrests were made on Monday. Also read: Pori Moni case: Police press drug-related charges against Nasir, four others She visited the office of the Detective Branch and also thanked Inspector General of Police (IGP) Benzir Ahmed for promptly taking action in arresting the accused as soon as he learned about the incident. “I knew he was the only place of hope. That's why I repeatedly wanted to reach out to him,” the starlet also said. She seemed to backtrack somewhat from her initial grievance of the law enforcers not being cooperative, at least when she went to file a case at the Banani police station, right after the incident.  Asked about going to Banani police station under the influence of alcohol, he said, "I was forced to drink alcohol." Also read: Uttara Club's ex-president Nasiruddin,4 others arrested over rape attempt on Pori Moni In response to another question, Pori Moni  said, "I did not say that the police did not cooperate, rather I said I did not get cooperation from many places without specifically mentioning the police.” Speaking after her, Harun-or-Rashid, joint commissioner (North) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), literally lapped up the praise, saying: "The IGP contacted our superiors as soon as he found out. We have arrested the accused with lightning speed. As she has already said, the role of the police was like magic.” “We will do our best to bring justice in this case,” he added. Also read: Pori Moni files sexual assault complaint against Uttara Club’s ex-president Nasiruddin, 5 others On Monday, Pori Moni filed a sexual assault complaint against six people, including businessman Nasir U Mahmood, at Savar Model Police Station. The previous day, on her verified Facebook page, she had posted a status seeking justice from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, claiming that someone or some people had attempted to rape and kill her at the Uttara Boating Club, in an incident four days earlier, that is June 9th. The status went viral in no time, and it was followed by a dramatic midnight press conference from her residence that was widely broadcast. Also read: Pori Moni's plea for justice from PM causes sensation Nasiruddin, owner of real estate company Kunjo Builders, and also an ex-president of Uttara Club, was picked up along with some associated before the next working day(Monday) was over.

Police on Tuesday pressed drug-possession charges against realtor Nasir U Mahmood and four others, a day after they were arrested over their alleged attempt to rape and murder actress Pori Moni. An FIR was filed against the five under the Narcotics Control Act at the Airport police station in the small hours of Tuesday on a complaint by Manik Kumar, sub-inspector of DB Gulshan zonal team, said duty officer Mashiul Alam. Drug-related charges have been brought against the five in the wake of the seizure of some 1,000 pieces of Yaba tablets from their possession at the time of their arrest. Read Pori Moni's plea for justice from PM causes sensation The other accused in the case are Tuhin Siddique Omi, 33, Nazma Amin Brishti, 24,  Lipi Akter, 18, and Sumi Akter, 19.  All of them will be produced in a court later in the day and police will seek their remand for custodial interrogation,  sources told UNB. On Monday, police arrested Nasir, the former president of Uttara Club Limited, from a flat in the Uttara area in the wake of a case filed over the alleged attempt to rape and kill actress Pori Moni. The case was filed on a complaint by the actress. Read: Rape attempt on Pori Moni: Boat Club expels Nasir from EC Apart from the drugs, police also seized foreign liquor and beer from the apartment. Nasir’s Facebook profile shows he is currently the chairman of Kunj Developers, former president of Uttara Club, former district chairman of Lions Clubs International, a former footballer, and former elected general secretary of SM Hall of Dhaka University. Besides, Dhaka Boat Club expelled Nasir from its executive committee on Monday, hours after his arrest. Read: Uttara Club's ex-president Nasiruddin,4 others arrested over rape attempt on Pori Moni The club took the unanimous decision at an EC meeting presided over by its President Dr Benazir Ahmed. It was attended by eight other EC committee members as well as club’s adviser Rubel Aziz. The meeting also suspended the club membership of Nasir and three others, Tuhin Siddique Omi and Shah S Alam, said a statement from the club.

A madrasa teacher in Daganbhuiyan upazila of Feni has been accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old student. Victim’s mother on Thursday filed a case against the accused Saidur Rahman at Dagonbhuiyan police station. Saidur was a teacher of Al Jamiatul Islamia Abdul Ibn Abbas (RA) madrasa and was hailing from Sylhet. Also read: CTG madrasa teacher arrested for ‘sexually assaulting’ 2 students Officer-in-Charge of Dagonbhuiyan police station Imtiaj Ahmed said, "On March 30 Saidur allegedly raped the victim and threatened him not to tell anyone." The victim disclosed the incident when his parents tried to send him back to madrasa after the Eid vacation. When the parents informed the matter to the Madrasa principal, accused Saidur fled. Also read: Madrasa teacher held over ‘raping’ 7-yr old child in Benapole The victim was sent to hospital for medical tests, said the OC Efforts are ongoing to arrest the accused, said police.