Content creator Ashraful Hossain Alom, popularly known as Hero Alom, has been released on bail 21 days after his arrest in Bogura in a case filed over allegations of rape and abuse on the promise of marriage and making the complainant a film heroine.
Hero Alom was released from Bogura District Jail yesterday (11 March).
Speaking to journalists at the jail gate, he claimed that the case had been fabricated to harass him.
“I had already been granted bail last Wednesday, but through a conspiracy I was kept detained for another week in a different case,” he said, adding that the conspiracy was linked to his announcement to contest the Bogura (Sadar) by-election.
He also told the media that many people inside the prison have been in custody for years in what he claimed were false cases and are not receiving proper justice.
“Detaining people without proper investigation can be devastating for their families,” he added.
Hero Alom was arrested on 19 February from the Majhira area of Shahjahanpur upazila in Bogura.
According to Bogura district police sources, the case was filed on 6 May last year by a woman with the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-1 in Bogura.
On the same day, the tribunal recorded the complainant’s statement and instructed the Superintendent of the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to investigate the matter and submit a report.
After completing the investigation, the PBI submitted its charge sheet to the court on 10 February.
According to the case statement, Hero Alom allegedly raped the woman multiple times by promising to marry her and assuring that he would make her a film heroine.
He allegedly lived with the victim in rented houses at different locations while claiming that she was his wife.
When the woman became pregnant, she was allegedly taken to his home in Bogura on 18 April last year and pressured to undergo an abortion.
When she refused, she was allegedly assaulted on 21 April by Hero Alom and the other accused, causing severe bleeding. She was later admitted to a clinic in the town, where she suffered a miscarriage.
She subsequently received treatment at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in Bogura from 24 to 26 April.
The charge sheet also states that Hero Alom allegedly borrowed about Tk15 lakh from the woman on the pretext of producing a film.
