Rape of a woman on a moving bus on the Dhaka-Tangail highway: driver and two others get life imprisonment

A court has sentenced three men, including the driver and his assistant, to life imprisonment in the case of the rape of a woman passenger on a moving bus on the Dhaka-Tangail highway. Judge A. N. M. Elias of the Tangail Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal delivered the verdict on Sunday afternoon.

The convicted men are the bus driver Md Altaf (25), the driver's assistant Md Rabbi (21) and the bus conductor Sagar alias Sajib Matabbar (24).

Altaf is the son of Abdur Rob of Nanderai village in Chirirbandar Upazila of Dinajpur. Rabbi is the son of Khokon Mia of Shibpur village in Jamalganj Upazila of Sunamganj district. Sagar is the son of Chunnu Matabbar of the Chandor Hat Bazar area in Nagarkanda Upazila of Faridpur.

Each of the three convicts was also fined two lakh taka, with a further one year of imprisonment in default. After the verdict, the convicts were sent to Tangail jail.

Omrao Khan Dipu, public prosecutor (PP) of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal, said the woman had boarded a Savar Paribahan bus at Gabtoli in Dhaka at around 11:45 pm on January 14 to travel to Ashulia.

According to the PP, the other passengers got off at various bus stands along the way. The woman was then raped in turn on the moving bus. During this, the attackers threatened her and snatched her earrings, 36,000 taka in cash and her mobile phone. The bus then kept circling the Dhaka-Tangail highway with the woman still on board.

The next day the bus stopped in the Kortia underpass area of Tangail Sadar Upazila. The woman then told the highway police, who were on patrol in the area, what had happened. The highway police handed over the three men, along with the bus, to the Tangail Sadar police station.

On that same day, the victim herself filed a rape case at Tangail Sadar police station as the complainant.

Victor Banerjee, inspector (investigation) of Tangail Sadar police station, submitted the charge sheet to the court on April 29 after completing the investigation.

The court delivered the verdict on Sunday after recording the testimony of a total of 15 witnesses in the case.