Two of the witnesses in the case filed over the rape and killing of seven-year-old Samia Afrin Sayma in Dhaka’s Wari have testified in the court.
The child’s father Abdus Samad and their security guard Farid Mollah testified in the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-1 on Wednesday (Jan 8).
On Jan 2, the court indicted the lone suspect in the case, Harun-ur-Rashid, a relative of Saima’s neighbor.
On July 5, 2019, police recovered the body of Saima, a student of Silverdale School, from an unfinished apartment two floors above her Wari home.
The victim's father, Abdus Salam, a businessman, said he returned home around 7pm and could not find her in her room. He began searching with his wife.
When they failed to find the girl in their fifth-floor apartment, they began checking the other floors, some of which were under construction and her body was found with a rope tied around her neck.
An autopsy revealed that she was sexually assaulted before being strangled to death and her body bore injuries near her genitals and lips.
On July 7, police arrested Harun and on Nov 5, police charged him with the offences showing 23 people as prosecution witnesses.