The High Court has acquitted a man of rape charge after 27 years of his conviction.
The Nilphamari District and Sessions Judge court on January 25, 2000, jailed the man, Tojammel Hossain, who was then a 13-year boy, on charge sexual assault on a Hindu woman and mother of eight-year-old son.
The single High Court member bench of Justice Md Shohrowardi delivered his written verdict on Wednesday, more than six months after the announcement of the short verdict delivered in open court on November 2, 2023.
The High Court also scrapped the verdict delivered by the Nilphamari District and Sessions Judge court on January 25, 2000, jailing the minor boy for two years for sexually assaulting the Hindi woman, the mother of an eight-year-old son, in a 鈥榩re-planned way鈥� on September 14, 1997, to marry her.聽聽聽聽聽聽
According to the victim, she used to live in the house of her father with her eight-year-old son. Her neighbour used to give her bad proposals and he later proposed to marry her. The neighbour on the advice of the four other accused, made a plan to rape her and to marry her subsequently. On early morning of September 14, 1997, the neighbour sexually assaulted her when she went to the cluster of bamboos to answer the call of nature.
The High Court observed in the verdict that the woman while giving her depositions to the trial court, remained silent and the doctor opined that no sign of rape was found.
The High Court further observed that the woman filed a false complaint petition with the magistrate court at the insistence of Babu Lal, brother of local union parishad member Khitis Chandra, over previous enmity with Tojammel Hossain, who was among the four people accused of assisting and abetting the minor boy to commit the alleged crime.聽聽
The High Court observed that Babu Lal was sentenced to 10 years鈥� imprisonment for committing robbery in the house of the uncle of Tojammel.
The verdict observed that it appeared that neither the woman nor the investigation officer did mention the age of the alleged offender.
At the time of examination of the accused on January 13, 2000, the trial court found that the accused was about 16 years of age. The alleged crime took place on September 14, 1997.
Therefore, it is clear as day light that at the time of occurrence, the accused was a minor boy aged about 13 years.
鈥業t is hard to believe that a minor boy aged about 13 years can rape a mother of a son aged about eight years to subsequently marry her,鈥� the verdict observed.
It says, 鈥楩urthermore, the statement made in the complaint petition regarding rape was found false by the investigation officer.鈥�
鈥楤ecause of the above evidence, findings, observations and propositions, I am of the view that the prosecution made out a false and an afterthought case of outraging modesty of the complainant against the accused,鈥� the judge observed.
Deputy attorney general Shaifour Rahman Siddique Saif, who appeared in the case, told 抖阴精品 that the government would not appeal against the verdict as he found no illegality in the findings of the High Court.聽聽聽聽
Lawyer Kamal Hossain defended the alleged offender.
