Man sentenced to life in prison for raping of Madrasa student

A Naogaon court has handed down a life sentence to a man convicted of raping a seventh-grade madrasa student, more than three years after the incident took place.

Judge Mehedi Hasan Talukdar of the Naogaon Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-2 delivered the verdict on Sunday, sentencing Abdus Salam, 38, to life imprisonment. The court also imposed a fine of Tk 1 lakh; failure to pay will result in an additional six months behind bars.

Salam, a resident of Borsail Madhyapara village in Naogaon Sadar upazila, was a neighbor of the victim’s family, who lived in a rented house in Patnitala upazila. He operated a local scrap business and had reportedly made repeated inappropriate advances toward the girl during her daily commute to madrasa.

According to case documents, on July 11, 2022, Salam abducted the girl from a market and confined her in a rented house in Bhabanipur Dakshin Para village, where he raped her multiple times.

The victim was rescued following a complaint lodged with the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), which led to Salam’s arrest. Police later submitted a chargesheet against Salam and three others after completing their investigation.

The verdict has been welcomed by rights activists as a step toward justice for survivors of sexual violence, particularly minors.