Police yesterday arrested another accused in the case for murder of teenage rape victim Hena Akhter who was whipped following a fatwa at Noria upazila in Shariatpur.
Latif Mirmalot, one of the local arbiters on January 24 that ordered Hena to be whipped 101 times, was arrested at his relative’s house in Siddheswari in the capital around 8:30am.
Kazi Kamal Hossain, sub-inspector of Noria Police Station and also investigation officer of the fresh case filed in connection with Hena’s murder following a High Court order, brought Latif to Noria at 2:00pm.
He would be produced before court with a remand prayer today. So far, police have arrested only seven out of 18 accused, as most of them are hiding.
Meanwhile, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) began interrogating Shilpi, wife of the rapist, Mahbub, 40, since Sunday. A Shariatpur court granted a second round of remand for Shilpi last Wednesday.
Shilpi was arrested immediately following Hena’s death as she was accused of beating her up severely after discovering her rapist husband with Hena.
Currently the CID is investigating the first case filed immediately after the death of Hena, as it was already transferred to the department by the first week of February.
On February 11, the High Court (HC) ordered filing of another case as deep injury marks were revealed following another postmortem on Hena’s exhumed body.
The HC in a suo moto rule ordered exhumation of Hena’s body following a report published by The Daily Star which stated that the first autopsy “did not find any trace of injury” to Hena’s body.
