Culprits 2, not 5

The indigenous girl, who was raped in a running microbus in the capital on Thursday night, was lured into the offenders' trap with an offer of a better job, claimed the Rapid Action Battalion.

Two men, not five as initially claimed by the victim, committed the heinous crime, the Rab said in a press brief after arresting the duo in the early hours yesterday.

Ashraf Khan alias Tushar, 35, and Jahidul Islam Lavlu, 26 -- the suspected rapists -- were paraded before the media during the press conference. Both were working as drivers at a garment buying house in Gulshan.

In the case filed with Bhatara Police Station on Friday, the victim mentioned that five people had "gang-raped" her for over an hour that night.

However, the elite force yesterday said apart from the two arrested, a third person named Firoz, another driver working at the same firm, was involved in the planning but did not appear on the night of the incident.

Contacted, relatives of the victim, who has been kept at the Victim Support Centre of police in Tejgaon, said that the Rab men showed her a video clip yesterday morning and she identified the two arrestees as her rapists.

The victim also demanded capital punishment for them, said a relative, whishing anonymity.

Asked about discrepancy over the number of offenders, another relative said the rapists in the microbus had told the victim that they had more accomplices in other vehicles that were following the microbus.

Later when they went to Bhatara Police Station, the policemen there advised them to put the number of offenders at five.

Inspector Sazzad Hossain, investigating officer of the case, said they heard a description of the incident from the victim and her family members and they were investigating the case based on that information.

"We will interrogate the detainees once they are handed over to us," he told The Daily Star over the phone, adding that all confusions would dissipate once the detainees gave confessional statements.

Later in the evening, Officer-in-Charge Nurul Muttakin of the police station told this paper that they had received the arrestees from the Rab.

TARGETED AT FIRST MEETING

The girl of Garo community had been targeted the very first time one of the rapists met her at her workplace in Jamuna Future Park, the Rab said.

Quoting the detainees, Rab Media Wing Director Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan said Tushar, the alleged mastermind, met her on May 16 when he along with two foreigners went to the shopping mall where the girl worked as a sales representative.

That very day, he started making efforts to win the girl's confidence. Though he himself was only a driver by profession, he offered the girl a better job and kept calling her over the phone repeatedly.

"He [Tushar] planned to trap the girl and for this he lured her with the promise of a job at his office," the Rab official said.

Once the girl started showing interest in the job offer, Tushar shared his plan with Lavlu and Firoz, both of who encouraged him to go ahead with the plan.

Then on May 20, he asked her to give him her resume on Thursday night.

According to plan, Tushar and Lavlu reached Kuril Highway Bus Stand area on a microbus around 9:15pm.

Around 15 minutes later, the girl came out of her workplace and was waiting for a bus to her Uttara residence.

The criminals then drove the microbus to her. Lavlu was at the wheel.

Tushar took the resume from her and offered her a lift home. When the girl rejected it outright, he pulled her into the vehicle forcibly.

The duo then took turns raping the girl for around an hour before dropping her near her house, the Rab director said, quoting the arrestees.

Tushar was detained from Kolapara of Patuakhali district around 1:00am. Based on information gleaned from him, a Rab team caught Lavlu from the capital's Gulshan around 5:25am.

Also, the microbus used in the incident has been seized from the capital's Banani area, Commander Mufti Mahmud added.

Meanwhile the Dhaka Medical College Hospital authority yesterday handed over the victim's forensic test report to the investigators.

Prof Habibuzzaman Chowdhury, head of the Forensic Medicine department, said the report states the girl was indeed raped that night.