UNB: A tribunal has acquitted five persons accused of raping two university students in the city’s Raintree Hotel four years ago.
Judge Kamrunnahar of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-7 pronounced the verdict on Thursday.
The five acquitted persons are Apan Jewellers owner Dildar Hossain’s son Shafat Ahmed, Shafat’s friend Shadman Sakif, Nayem Ashraf, Shafat’s driver Billal Hossain and bodyguard Rahmat Ali.
All five were produced before the court from the jail ahead of the verdict.
A case was filed with the Banani police station on 28 March 2017 in connection with raping two university students.
While delivering the verdict, the court observed that the prosecution had failed to prove the case and wasted the court’s time.
According to the charge sheet of the case, plaintiff and her friend went to the hotel to attend a birthday party. As the duo and their two other friends wanted to leave the hotel as there was no suitable environment for any party, Shafat Ahmed and his friend Nayem Ashraf confined the girls and raped them multiple times.
In his confessional statement, Shafat said he got acquainted with the plaintiff through another friend around two weeks before the incident. He claimed soon they become so intimate that the decision to hold birthday party at the Raintree hotel was taken at the choice of the plaintiff. Shafat said he booked two rooms at the hotel and they were inebriated at the night.
Accused Nayem Ashraf also confessed to the court about raping the girls that night.
The prosecution said a total of 21 witnesses out of 47 appeared before the court in the case. The arguments of both sides were closed on 3 October and the court sent five accused to jail that day.
The charges against five accused were framed on 13 July 2017.
