Five transport workers have been indicted in a case for killing law student Rupa Khatun after gang-rape on a moving bus in Tangail back in August.

Rupa Khatun

Tangail District and Sessions Judge Rabiul Hassan, acting judge for the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal, framed the charges today.

Our local correspondent reports, the judge rejected petitions filed by the accused seeking bail, discharge and reinvestigation of the suit, and set January 3, 2018 to begin trial in the case.

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Advocate Ataur Rahman Azad, secretary for the local chapter of a rights group and who is helping the state fight the case, confirmed the development to The Daily Star.

Those indicted in the charges of rape, murder, hiding dead body and abetting the process are: bus helpers Shamim, 26, Akram, 35, and Jahangir, 20, driver Habibur, 45, and bus supervisor Safar Ali, 55.

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Police found Rupa’s bloody dead body near Madhupur in Tangail on August 25. Her parents identified her from photograph after police buried the body as an anonymous person.

Autopsy of the body has confirmed gang-rape prior to murder. On the sidelines, the five persons were arrested a few days later and charged for rape and murder on October 16.