Banani rape: NHRC probe team visits hotel

Two members of National Human Rights Commission’s fact finding committee, which has been formed to probe the incident of the alleged rape of two university girls at an upscale hotel in Banani, visited the place of occurrence today.

Nazrul Islam, the convener of the five-member NHRC committee, and Sharif Uddin, a director (complaint and investigation), entered the hotel, The Raintree Dhaka, around 10:00am and talked to the hotel management and its eight to 10 staff.

After leaving the hotel around 1:00pm, they talked to reporters.

Replying to a query, Nazrul said, “It is apparent that human rights were violated.”

“We will submit the final report after talking with all the people concerned,” he said.

“The hotel management claimed that they did not notice any abnormality on that day but we will have our final say after thorough investigation,” he also said.

On Thursday, the two girls, who were “raped” in the posh hotel on March 28, gave judicial statements before a magistrate at her chamber.

Invited to Ahmed Shafat's birthday party on March 28, the two girls went to the hotel around 9:00pm. After the party ended around midnight, Shafat and Nayeem raped them in two rooms, alleged the girl who filed the case. Shadman Sakif, Billal and Azad assisted the rapists, she said, adding all the five accused were drunk that time.

A joint team of police arrested two of the accused - Ahmed Shafat and Shadman Sakif - raiding a house in Pathantula area of Sylhet city on Thursday night.

They were brought to Dhaka yesterday morning. Later in the day, a Dhaka court placed Shafat on six-day remand and Sakif on five-day remand after police produced them before it and sought 10-day remand for each of them.

Police are now hunting the three other accused -- Nayeem Ashraf alias Halim, Shafat's driver Billal and bodyguard Abul Kalam Azad.
DNC raids Raintree hotel

A team of Department of Narcotic Control (DNC) conducted a raid at the hotel in the morning but ended empty handed since no narcotic substance or liquour was found inside it.

“As part of our regular drive, a DNC team conducted an hour-long drive in the hotel that started at 11:00am,” Kurshid Alam, assistant director of DNC (Dhaka metro-north).

Source: thedailystar