The High Court has raised questions about a suicide case being filed instead of a rape case over the death of a woman who allegedly killed herself after being raped at Noakhali’s Shubarnachar Upazila.
The bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader raised the question on Tuesday (Apr 16) after hearing a petition.
The bench also issued a rule asking why the respondents’ failure to take necessary legal steps against the perpetrators and settling a matter as atrocious as rape through negotiations shouldn’t be declared illegal.
The LGRD secretary, Noakhali deputy commissioner, Shubarnachar police OC, Union Parishad (UP) chairman and local UP member and other related individuals have been made respondents to the rule.
The court also expressed concern at the increasing number of women and children becoming victims of rape, saying “There has been a definite decline in our moral values. The student, teachers, guardians, governing bodies and politicians must become more alert.”
On Mar 4, Supreme Court lawyer Muntasir Mahmud Rahman lodged a petition with the HC along with a national daily report that a housewife has poisoned herself after being raped.
The report said that the victim killed herself on the morning of Mar 2 after being raped on Mar 1 night.
Quoting the family, the report said that the one Alauddin entered the victim’s residence, seeing that her husband wasn’t home and raped her.
In the meantime, her husband returned home and after catching the rapist in the act called the locals.
The report says that at one point influential locals including ward member Nur beat the rapist up and fined him Tk 60,000 before letting him go.
The victim drank poison the day following the settlement. Her family rushed her to Noakhali General Hospital where the doctors declared her dead.
After her death, the victim’s father filed a case for instigating suicide but not for rape.