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A Chattogram court has sentenced a madrasa teacher to jail until death for raping six children in a case under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal Act.
Judge Ferdous Ara of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal in Chattogram delivered the verdict on Wednesday.
The convict, 41-year-old Nazim Uddin, was a resident of Fatikchhari's East Dhurong Babuganj. Alongside the jail sentence, he has been handed a fine of Tk 500,000.
Nazim was working as a director and teacher at the Rahmania Tahfizul Quran Academy next to the Makkah Hotel in Panchlaish during the incident.
Tribunal bench assistant Kafil Uddin said, “The court has jailed Nazim Uddin until death and imposed a Tk 500,000 fine after finding him guilty of raping six children under Section 9(1) of the Women and Children's Repression Prevention Act, 2000."
Nazim was present in court when the verdict was delivered, he added.
“The accused gave a confessional statement during the investigation.”
According to the case dossier, Nazim raped the six students at different times between 2019 and 2021 while in charge of the madrasa academy.
On Mar 4, 2021, police launched a probe after receiving a complaint that a student of the madrasa had been sexually assaulted, later finding evidence to substantiate the allegations.
Later that day, the elder brother of an 11-year-old student of the madrasa filed the case on behalf of the six students.
According to the complaint, on the night of Aug 15, 2019, Nazim took the victim, an 11-year-old girl, to the madrasa office and sexually abused her, it said.
Later, on Dec 16 that year, Nazim sexually assaulted another 16-year-old student of the madrasa. It added that earlier, he had raped a 12-year-old on Feb 23, 2019, and another 13-year-old on Feb 18, 2020.
"He also sexually abused two more students on the night of Feb 21, 2020, and on May 18 the same year," it added.
“Nazim Uddin used to intimidate and beat up the students so they didn't open up to their parents about the abuse.”
After police filed a chargesheet in the case, the tribunal indicted Nazim on Nov 4, 2021.
The tribunal heard 11 witness testimonies in the case, while two people testified on behalf of the convict.