A court in Tangail has sentenced three men—a bus driver, his assistant and a conductor—to life imprisonment for raping a female passenger aboard a moving bus on the Dhaka-Tangail highway.
Judge ANM Ilias of the Tangail Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal delivered the verdict on Sunday afternoon, October 25. The court also fined each convict Tk 200,000, with an additional year of rigorous imprisonment if they fail to pay the fine.
The convicts are bus driver Md Altaf, 25; driver’s assistant Md Rabbi, 21; and conductor Sagar, also known as Sajib Matabbar, 24.
Altaf is the son of Abdur Rob of Nanderai village in Chirirbandar upazila, Dinajpur. Rabbi is the son of Khokon Mia of Shibpur village in Jamalganj upazila, Sunamganj, while Sagar is the son of Chunnu Matabbar of Chandar Hat Bazar in Nagarkanda upazila, Faridpur.
According to the case records, the victim boarded a Savar Paribahan bus at Gabtoli in Dhaka at around 11:45pm on January 14, intending to travel to Ashulia. As passengers got off at different stops along the route, the bus eventually became empty.
Taking advantage of the situation, the three men raped the woman in succession while the bus was moving. After the assault, they allegedly threatened her and stole her earrings, Tk 36,000 in cash and mobile phone.
The men then continued driving the bus around the Dhaka-Tangail highway. The following morning, when the bus stopped near the Kortia underpass in Tangail Sadar upazila, the woman reported the incident to a highway police patrol on duty in the area.
Highway police immediately detained the three accused along with the bus and handed them over to Tangail Sadar Police Station.
The woman filed a rape case with Tangail Sadar Police Station on the day of the incident. Inspector (Investigation) Victor Banerjee, the investigating officer, submitted the charge sheet to the court on April 29 after completing the investigation.
Omaraw Khan Dipu, the public prosecutor at the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal, said testimony was taken from 15 witnesses in the case.
After lengthy judicial proceedings, the court announced the verdict on Sunday in the presence of all three accused. Following the verdict, they were sent to Tangail District Jail.
