Amid the killing spree of the ‘rapists’ in the name of ancient Roman hero Hercules at the country’s different places, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said such acts are not legal.
“The State never wishes anyone to die and those who are killing people using the name of Hercules are not doing any good either,” he said on Friday (Feb 8).
Speaking to media after a programme at the city’s Lalmatia, “Rape is a heinous crime and rapists are the enemy of society.
“However, killing them in such way is condemnable... It’s not legal,” he said.
The minister said they are investigating into the murders “to find out the mystery.”
As many as three suspected rapists have been killed in a similar manner over the last three weeks.
Every time, police recovered the body with a note on which the deceased confessed that he was “a rapist.”
On Feb 1, police found the body of 20-year-old Rakib Hossain with a note hanging around his neck in the southern district of Jhalakathi's Rajapur Upazila.
The note reads, “I am Rakib. I am the rapist of a madrasa girl…of (Dhaka’s) Bhandaria. This is the consequence of a rapist. Be aware rapists…Hercules.”
Rakib was accused in a case filed with the city’s Bhandaria police over the gang rape of a madrasa student.
On Jan 14, a madrasa student was allegedly gang-raped by two men on her way to her grandparents' house.
Three days later, the victim’s father filed a case against two people -- Sajal and Rakib with Bhandaria police.
On Jan 24, police recovered the bullet-hit body Sajal in Jhalakathi's Kathalia Upazila, with a similar note hanging around the neck.
On Jan 17, police found the body of Ripon, 39, a key suspect in the gang rape and murder of a female garment worker, in Savar on the outskirts of the capital, with a similar note hanging around the neck.
In the early hours of Jan 7, an 18-year-old girl was found dead in her house in Ashulia, hours after she had lodged a case with Ashulia police accusing Ripon and three other co-workers of raping her.
Later, the victim’s father filed a murder case Ripon and the three others with the police station.