Girl Whipped to Death
‘Heavy wounds’ all over body
Finds fresh autopsy report to HC; main accused Mahbub held
Hena’s body bears “heavy wounds” all over, the High Court said yesterday quoting a fresh autopsy report submitted to it.
The death of Hena was homicidal in nature, the HC further said quoting the post-mortem report by Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
An HC bench comprised of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain made the remarks after receiving the fresh autopsy report.
Fifteen-year-old rape victim Hena Akter from Noria upazial in Shariatpur was allegedly whipped to death recently following a fatwa given at a local arbitration.
Meanwile, police yesterday arrested Mahbub Khan, the alleged rapist and main accused in the case for murder of Hena, at Savar on the outskirts of the capital.
Acting on a tip-off, Shariatpur police arrested Mahbub around 11:00am, Shahidur Rahman, Shariatpur superintendent of police said when contacted.
“We will produce him before court tomorrow (Thursday),” the SP added.
The HC bench had earlier issued a suo moto rule on the authorities for a fresh autopsy of the victim’s body.
The court said there is a vast difference between the DMCH autopsy report and the one made earlier by Shariatpur Sadar Hospital. It however did not disclose details of the reports.
According to Shariatpur hospital’s report, there was no injury on Hena’s body.
The HC received it on February 7.
Both the autopsy reports cannot be true. One report must be true and another must be untrue, court told Deputy Attorney General ABM Altaf Hossain after the Supreme Court Registrar’s office placed the DMCH report before it.
The HC yesterday asked Hena’s father Darbesh Khan and her cousin Minu Begum to appear before it this morning for giving their statements.
It also ordered the local administration of Shariatpur to arrange conveyance of Darbesh and Minu.
On February 7, the bench summoned eight persons to appear before it at 10:30am today. They include the officer-in-charge of Noria Police Station, Sub-inspector Aslam Uddin, who prepared the inquest report; doctors Nirmal Chandra Das, Rajesh Majumder, and Hosne Ara Begum, who prepared the first post-mortem report; Sultan Ahmed and a senior nurse,who attended Hena; and arbitrator Idris Sheikh, local union parishad member.
The body of Hena was exhumed on Monday night for the fresh post-mortem in compliance with an HC order.
The Daily Star had earlier reported that the police inquest and first autopsy found no mark of injury on Hena’s body.