A leader of the ruling party’s student wing has been arrested in connection with the rape of a married woman at the Jahanirnagar University (JU) campus.
The prime accused, Mostafizur Rahman, a student of the 45th batch of the International Relations Department of JU and the Chhatra League’s international affairs secretary of the university’s Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall unit, was remanded Sunday afternoon.
Three of his accomplices were also put on remand after the four people were arrested in the early hours on Sunday.
As news of the incident broke on Saturday night, it sparked protests on the campus and demonstrations started to intensify from yesterday morning, with reactions pouring in from outside the university too.
The survivor was raped in the area adjacent to the students’ dorm around 9pm on Saturday, where Mostafizur is a resident student.
Her husband filed a case with Ashulia police station the same night, naming six people.
With protests joined by students and teachers growing, JU authorities yesterday afternoon suspended the certificates of the accused and declared them persona non grata while banning the entry of outsiders.
The JU Teachers’ Association also issued a statement condemning the rape and demanding trial of the accused.
Protests also took place at Dhaka University, with netizens, too, expressing their resentment and demanding justice for the survivor.
At least 573 women and girls were raped across Bangladesh in 2023, according to the rights group Ain o Salish Kendra.
In late 2020, the government initiated the amendment to the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act to allow the death penalty for rape.
It followed a gang rape by some Chhatra League members at MC College in late September 2020.
But despite the introduction of capital punishment, hundreds of rapes are still being reported annually.
How the nightmare started
Mamunur Rashid, who is a neighbour of the woman and her husband, on Saturday evening called the husband to the university and locked him inside room No 317 of Bloc A in the hostel, where Mostafizur was residing, the police said referring to the victim.
After that, Mamunur tricked the woman into visiting him at the university. Once there, he deceived her into accompanying him to a secluded area where he said her husband would arrive later, the police added.
The rape survivor told the law enforcers that Mamun asked her to go to the JU campus with his belongings as he said he would shift his house soon.
The arrest and remand
Dhaka Tribune made several phone calls to Mostafizur yesterday morning but he did not respond. His mobile phone was later found switched off.
However, later in the day, it was revealed that Ashulia police had arrested four people, including Mostafizur, around 3am yesterday from Savar. Mamunur and another JU student named Md Murad remained on the run.
The three other arrestees are Mostafizur’s classmate Hasanuzzaman and Sagor Siddiqui from the 46th batch and Sabbir Hossen from the 47th batch of the Botany Department.
They were detained as they were seen in CCTV footage assisting the accused and helping them escape from the campus, the police said.
Dhaka Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime and Ops and Traffic North Division) Md Abdullahil Kafi told Dhaka Tribune that they were trying to arrest Mamunur and Murad.
“Mostafizur was arrested from the Savar police station area while we managed to nab Hasanuzzaman, Sagor and Sabbir with the help of the JU proctorial team,” he said.
The trio helped Mostafizur flee, Kafi added.
Later in the day, a Dhaka court granted a three-day remand for each of the four arrestees yesterday afternoon after the police sought seven days for interrogation.
Dhaka Senior Judicial Magistrate Rabeya Begum passed the order, said Additional Public Prosecutor Anwarul Kabir Babul.
Expulsion, condemnation from BCL
When contacted, JU unit Chhatra League President Akhtaruzzaman Sohel said: “Mustafizur Rahman has been expelled from the student organisation’s Jahangirnagar University unit based on the allegations raised against him.”
A notice has been issued in this regard, he said.
Meanwhile, terming the incident a “heinous act”, JU unit Chhatra League General Secretary Habibur Rahman Liton said they want the maximum punishment for the accused through a thorough investigation.
Raging protests
As the news of the rape instant spread like wildfire on the campus, students started to gather in front of the hostel in no time.
They resumed demonstrations Sunday morning and as the day progressed, the protest began to become louder with more students joining.
Many teachers joined them too.
The protesters formed human chains and marched on the campus. A section of students staged a sat-in in front of the JU administrative building.
Another group of teachers and students talked to Vice Chancellor Prof Md Nurul Alam, demanding trial of the rape accused along with the expulsion of the non-students from the residential halls.
Meanwhile, a group of Dhaka University students formed a human chain at the Anti-Terrorism Raju Memorial Sculpture, demanding exemplary punishment of the accused.
Action following urgent JU meeting
The JU administration called an emergency syndicate meeting at 3pm.
It decided to suspend the certificates of the accused, declare them unwanted on the campus, ban outsiders and temporary shops, issue notifications barring non-students from the dorms and punitive measures for defying the move, and probe the rape and recommend proper punishment of the accused.
Illegal stay at the dorm
Mostafizur was living in room No 205 of Bloc B of the hostel for more than a year, violating the relevant rules. The written exams of his batch were held between November 10 and December 7 in 2022.
In line with the JU law, as a Masters’ student, he was supposed to leave his seat at the hostel within seven days into the completion of his final exam.
Built near Savar, on the outskirts of the capital, the university now has 34 departments and four institutes. Currently, there are more than 750 teachers and about 18,000 students studying in these departments.
The university has 22 residential halls for the accommodation of male and female students. But a number of leaders and activists of the ruling party’s student front occupy many seats at the dorms.
Dhaka Tribune on June 8 last year reported that the university has nine dormitories for its 5,640 male students, with more than 500 of them living there illegally. The dorms house nearly double the number of students.
General students often demand the immediate removal of the nonstudents, greatly helping settle the accommodation issue.
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