A hearing on the framing of charges is scheduled to be held today in the presence of the accused at the court of Judge Masrur Saleqin of the Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal.
Primes accused, Sohel Rana and his wife Swapna Khatun, Photo: TBS
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Primes accused, Sohel Rana and his wife Swapna Khatun, Photo: TBS
Sohel Rana and his wife, Swapna Akter, who were arrested in connection with the rape and murder of child Ramisa Akter in the capital’s Pallabi area, have been produced before a Dhaka court from prison.
The couple was brought to court at around 7:30am today (1 June) and kept in the court lock-up of the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court.
A hearing on the framing of charges is scheduled to be held today in the presence of the accused at the court of Judge Masrur Saleqin of the Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal.
Bench Assistant Pankaj Peter Gomes of the tribunal confirmed the matter.
Earlier, on 24 May, the case’s investigating officer, SI Ahiduzzaman of Pallabi Police Station, submitted a charge sheet against Sohel Rana and Swapna Akter.
The charge sheet was later presented before the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ashraful Haque, who took cognisance of it and transferred the case to the Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal for trial.
On the same day, Judge Masrur Saleqin accepted the charge sheet and fixed 1 June for the hearing on charge framing.
The Ministry of Law also appointed Advocate Musa Kalimullah, a member of the Dhaka District Bar Association, as a state-funded defence lawyer to represent the accused.
According to the specific details compiled in the police chargesheet, the tragedy unfolded on the morning of 19 May when Ramisa Akter, a class-two student of Mirpur Popular Model School, left her family’s flat.
The chargesheet states that the accused, Swapna Akter, who is the wife of prime accused Sohel Rana, 30, intercepted the child and deceptively lured her inside their neighbouring apartment.
Once the child was inside, the husband, Sohel Rana, confined Ramisa within their bathroom to lay the brutal sexual assault, raping the child before slitting her throat, according to the chargesheet.
The chargesheet further details that around 10:30am, after Ramisa went missing, her mother began searching for her child to send her to school and discovered a shoe of hers placed outside the suspects’ door.
Receiving no response to their knocks, the parents and other building residents forced entry into the flat, discovering Ramisa’s decapitated body on the bedroom floor and her head concealed inside a large bucket.
Swapna Akter was caught standing at the scene and immediately confessed to the parents and neighbours that her husband had committed the assault and murder inside the bathroom.
Following the discovery, the victim’s father, Abdul Hannan Mollah, lodged a formal case with the Pallabi Police Station naming Sohel Rana and his wife, Swapna Akter.
Police arrested Swapna from the crime scene and subsequently tracked down and apprehended Sohel Rana from Fatullah in Narayanganj.
On 20 May, Sohel Rana gave a formal judicial confession acknowledging his direct role in the crime, while Swapna was sent to jail on the same day.
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