MC College gang-rape: One gets death, three get life imprisonment

A court in Sylhet has sentenced one person to death and three others to life imprisonment in the high-profile gang-rape case of a young woman at the MC College hostel. The convicts were activists of the now-banned Chhatra League.

Judge Swapan Kumar Sarkar of the Sylhet Speedy Trial Tribunal delivered the verdict on Tuesday afternoon, July 14. Tribunal Public Prosecutor Abul Hossain confirmed the matter.

The rape incident occurred on the evening of September 25, 2020. The victim's husband filed a case at Shahparan Police Station, naming six individuals and accusing eight others. Police and RAB later conducted raids and arrested the accused.

During a search of the room belonging to accused Saifur Rahman at the hostel, police recovered a pipe gun, four ram daos and two knives. A separate case under the Arms Act was filed at Shahparan Police Station, along with another case over abduction and extortion. Charge sheets were filed in all three cases at that time.

DNA tests matched six of the eight accused with the rape evidence. On December 3, 2021, the investigating officer submitted a charge sheet against the eight accused.

The accused were Saifur Rahman, Shah Mahbubur Rahman alias Roni, Tarekul Islam alias Tarek, Arjun Laskar, Ainuddin alias Ainul, Misbaul Islam alias Rajon, Rabiul Hasan and Mahfuzur Rahman Masum. Among them, Saifur, Roni, Masum and Rabiul were students of MC College, and the college authorities expelled them and cancelled their student status. The National University also cancelled the student status and certificates of the four.

In 2022, while the case was pending in Sylhet's Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal, the plaintiff applied to the High Court to transfer it to a Speedy Trial Tribunal. On December 15 of that year, a High Court bench ordered the transfer of the gang-rape and extortion cases to a Speedy Trial Tribunal. The court also directed that a gazette be issued within 30 days. However, the then Attorney General filed a leave to appeal against the High Court order, which was unprecedented.

Lawyers at the time compared the state's appeal to a refusal to seek justice. Following the change of government through the July mass uprising, the state withdrew the appeal last year, and the case was transferred to the Speedy Trial Tribunal.

The first hearing in the tribunal was held on May 6 last year. Testimony began on May 13. After a lengthy legal process, arguments from both sides concluded last Thursday. A total of 24 witnesses testified in the case, including the rape survivor, her husband, Magistrate Sharmin Khanam Lina, the investigating officer, and doctors from Osmani Hospital.