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Charges have been pressed over the alleged rape of a toddler in Chattogram’s Bakalia, while police also plan to bring separate charges over the “mob violence” that followed the reported crime.
The suspect, 30-year-old Monir Hossain, a decorator shop employee, was named a suspect by the 3-and-a-half-year-old victim’s father on Thursday night.
Hossain Mohammad Kabir Bhuiyan, deputy commissioner of the Chattogram Metropolitan Police, shared the developments with the reporters.
The incident turned Chairman Ghata into a battlefield as locals clashed with police for over two hours on Thursday afternoon, demanding that the suspect be handed over to them for "vigilante justice".
At least 40 people, including journalists and some 35 police personnel, were injured, and a police truck was torched.
The violence erupted after allegations spread that Monir had abused the child at a decorator's warehouse near her grandmother’s house.
According to locals, the child’s parents were at work, the father in Dhaka and the mother at a garment factory, leaving their three children with their grandmother.
Monir allegedly lured the toddler into the warehouse.
Hearing the child's cries, the grandmother rescued her and beat Monir with a shoe.
The victim’s grandfather and locals locked Monir inside a nearby building.
When police arrived to take Monir into custody, the crowd resisted, apparently out of fear that the suspect might slip through legal loopholes.
The furious crowd surrounded police vehicles and pelted them with stones, prompting the law enforcers to use tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Kabir said local criminals, teenage gang leaders, and drug dealers previously arrested by police used Facebook messages to mobilise the crowd.
“They tried to divert the incident into a different direction," he said, adding that seven people have been arrested so far for the assault on law enforcers.
The victim was admitted to Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH) on Thursday evening.
CMCH Director Brig Gen Mohammed Taslim Uddin on Friday morning said the child is currently in stable condition and eating normally.
"Female doctors examined her and found no history of bleeding or external injuries. Samples have been collected for a DNA test," Taslim said.
The report could take a month to complete.