Police have arrested another suspect in the gang-rape of a woman in Noakhali’s Subarnachor on election day.
Noakhali Superintendent of Police Md Ilias Shareef said that district Detective Branch police arrested the suspect, 35-year-old Salauddin, from a relative’s home in Feni’s Sultanpur at 1:30 am on Sunday.
Salauddin is the eighth suspect police have arrested in connection with the case.
The police superintendent said that the police are conducting operations to arrest the remaining suspects in the case and are tracking their mobile phones.
The victim has alleged that she got into an argument with Awami League supporters when she went to vote on Dec 30 and that night supporters of local Awami League Publicity Secretary Ruhul Amin attacked their home, beat and tied up her husband and child and then raped her.
The victim’s husband filed a case at the Chorjabbar Police Station over the incident. The case accuses the suspects of vandalising the home, beating him and his child and gang-raping his wife.
Though the suspects were not named in the case, Ruhul Amin and his ‘chief associate’ Hassan Ali Bulu were arrested by police according to the victim’s accusations, reports bdnews24.com.
Police say Bulu was the ‘chief planner’ of the incident and had been the one who argued with the victim at the polling centre. He then hired a group of labourers for Tk 10,000 to ‘punish’ the woman.
Case investigator Chorjabbar Police Inspector Ibrahim Khalil has requested a seven-day remand to question three of the detainees – Basu, Sohel and Swapan.
A hearing will be held on the matter on Sunday, he said.
