Molester so mighty?

A group of village arbitrators ostracised her along with family members just on the basis of a totally unfounded claim that she appeared in a nude video clip.

The arbitration, held on January 3 this year in Kachaldanga village under Chirirbandar upazila, was headed by Abu Bakkar Siddique, father of Md Ohidul Master.

The victim's family members said it was Ohidul who spread rumours about her appearance in the clip after she, a housewife, had turned down his illicit proposal in December last year.

Interestingly enough, none of the arbitrators had seen the clip before they meted out the "punishment", one of the arbitrators told The Daily Star last month.

However, that was only the beginning of a series of attacks on her, some physical, some sexual and some verbal.

Ohidul and his men first allegedly assaulted the 27-year-old housewife on July 10. The victim's father filed a case against Ohidul and eight others in this connection with the Chirirbandar Police Station on July 27.

On August 25 evening, Ohidul's brother Shahidul Master and his cohorts allegedly tied the victim to a tree, beat her up and sexually assaulted her when she refused to withdraw the previous assault case. Another case was filed against three people including Shahidul on the following day with the same police station.

But police said they could not arrest the accused as they were on the run.

However, the victim's family members alleged that the police were not arresting the "criminals" intentionally as they were bribed.

On August 23, two days before the last incident of assault, the victim at a press conference at the Dinajpur Press Club claimed the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Chirirbandar Police Station is favouring the alleged assaulters in exchange for a bribe of Tk 3 lakh.

OC Anisur Rahman, however, refuted the allegations.

The prime accused Ohidul, a 35-year-old teacher of Karenthat Degree College, had made an illicit proposal to the woman in December last year, the victim told The Daily Star.

As she rejected the offer, Ohidul spread a nude video clip in the village and upload it on different websites, saying that she was the woman shown in the clip, the victim's family members said.

But a local journalist who watched the video clip told The Daily Star that there was no resemblance between the victim and the woman in the video.  The victim also told the police that she was not in the video, the OC said.

However, after being rejected by the victim, an arbitration, organised in January by Ohidul's father, a locally influential person, issued "Fatwa" against the victim and her family, prohibiting villagers from socializing with them, the victim said.

None of the victim's family members were present at the arbitration, she said.

Jalal Uddin, a member of Auliapukur Union Council, who was present at the arbitration, told The Daily Star on July 27, the day the first case was filed, that none of the arbitrators had seen the video in question.

"Though I was present at the arbitration, I protested the decision," he said on July 27.

OC Anisur Rahman said they came to know about the arbitration only after the July 10 assault on the victim and her family members.

Anisur said when the victim's father went to the village mosque on July 10, Ohidul's father Abu Bakkar Siddique forcefully took him [victim's father] to his house.

When the victim and her husband rushed there to her father's rescue, Ohidul, his father and some locals beat them up, Anisur said.

He claimed that he'd gone to the village after reading about the incident in a local newspaper and asked the victim's family to file a case but the family showed reluctance.

Eventually the victim's family filed a case on July 27, accusing nine people including Ohidul, Monsurul Islam, 32, son of Mokbul Hossain, Rakibul Islam, 34, son of late Khayer Uddin of Kachaldanga village.

The Daily Star could not verify this account of the police officer. However, the victim at the press conference on August 23 charged the OC with changing the FIR in favour of the accused.

But the OC told The Daily Star yesterday that they had arrested one accused Atab Ali on July 28, one day after the case was filed. The other eight, accused of assaulting the victim in the first case, obtained bail from a Dinajpur court on July 29 and later Atab too got bail, the OC said.

"After an accused is released on bail, we have nothing to do but the investigation is on," he said. "There is no scope for changing the FIR as claimed by the victim. It is totally false."

On August 25 evening, when the victim and her brother were returning home after consulting with a lawyer about the first case, Shahidul Master, brother of Ohidul, along with Monsurul and Rakibul caught them near a pond in Kachalganga, the victim's husband alleged.

They gagged their mouths so that they could not scream for help, he added.

The trio tied the victim and her brother to trees near the pond and molested her badly and beat her up mercilessly, her husband said adding, "They [the trio] shouted, 'how dare you file a case against us.'"

The trio fled the spot as a motorcycle was passing by with its lights on.

Later, that motorcyclist [unwilling to disclose his name] gathered people. Then the victim and her brother were taken to Dinajpur Medical College and Hospital around 11.50pm. "While fleeing the spot, the criminals threatened us loudly to keep silent about the incident, otherwise, they said we will face death," the victim's husband said quoting the motorcyclist.

Describing the physical assault on her, lying in a bed  of Dinajpur Medical College Hospital bed, the victim said, "All these happened just because I filed the case against them and turned down his [Ohidul's] illicit proposal."

Dr. Seema Basak of the hospital's gynaecology ward confirmed the victim was sexually assaulted.

The Daily Star could not contact Ohidul or his family as they were not receiving phone calls.

 OC Anisur said that after the August 25 incident, they raided the houses of the accused but could not arrest anyone. "We are trying to nab them," he said.