Rape of Schoolgirl in Rangpur

Protesters reject 'false' medical report, demand fresh check up

15 July 2009, 17:00 PM

Our Correspondent, Rangpur

Cross sections of people join a human chain at Kachari Bazar in Rangpur yesterday protesting 'false' medical report on a gang-raped schoolgirl and demanding punishment of the perpetrators.Photo: STAR

Cross sections of people, including students from different schools, formed a human chain at Court Square in Rangpur town yesterday morning in protest against 'false' medical report on a schoolgirl who was gang-raped on June 5. Later, they gave a memorandum to the deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police demanding fresh medical check up on the rape victim for a fair report. Nine human rights and social organisations also staged a demonstration at the same venue in the afternoon protesting the 'false' medical report released by the medical officer of the forensic department of Rangur Medicla College on July 12. The organisations include Women and Children Repression Resistance Committee, Rangpur Bar Council, Jatiya Mohila Ainjibi Samity, Jatiya Mohila Parishad, Begum Rokeya Forum of Rangpur and Dinajpur Rural Service. Addressing a press conference in Rangpur Ainjibi Samity conference room, the leaders of the organisations rejected the medical report, terming it false. They said there were a number of circumstantial and physical evidence that showed that the girl was gang-raped, but the medical officer in his report said that no sign of rape was found in her body. A gang of criminals picked up Merry Sumaiya Khandaker Toma, a student of class IX of Aziznagar Girls' High School, from a road adjacent to their residence at Robertsonsganj in the town on June 5. They took her to a place near Alamnagar food depot and raped her. They gang left the scene, leaving Toma unconscious. Locals took Toma to Rangpur Medical College Hospital where a medical test was done on her. Her mother lodged a rape case against local criminals-- Raja, Apel and Rasa--with kotwali Police Station on June 6. Police arrested Raja, one of the three accused, the same day while the rest are still at large.