Ramisa rape, murder: Case against Sohel, Swapna proceeds to trial

A Dhaka court has indicted Sohel Rana and his wife Swapna Akter in a case over the rape and murder of 8-year-old Ramisa Akter in Dhaka’s Pallabi.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Child Repression Prevention Tribunal of Judge Masrur Salekin scrapped the suspects’ petition to be dropped from the case on Monday, ordering the case to proceed to trial, confirmed the court’s bench assistant Peter Gomez.

Sohel was brought to court from the Keraniganj Central Jail at 7:45 am for the hearing. Swapna was also brought to court from Kashimpur Jail. They are currently at the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court lock-up and will be taken to the dock once the hearing convenes, bdnews24.com reports.

Police recovered the body of Ramisa from a flat in the B Block of Section 11 in Pallabi on May 19.

Law enforcers said that 32-year-old Sohel, who was subletting the flat, severed the child’s head that morning, and then escaped by cutting the window bars of the flat. However, his wife stayed back.

Police then arrested Swapna from the house.

That evening, Sohel was arrested from Narayanganj’s Fatullah.

Ramisa's father Abdul Hannan Mollah filed a case at Pallabi Police Station that day, accusing two people over the brutal incident.

The complaint said Ramisa lived with her family in a flat in Section 11 of Pallabi. She was a student in second grade of Popular Model High School.

Sohel and Swapna were subletting another flat in the building.

When Ramisa left her house around 9:30am on Tuesday, the suspects allegedly took her to their room on the third floor of the building.

Around 10:30 am, while looking for Ramisa to take her to school, her mother reportedly saw the girl's sandals in front of the suspects’ room.

Then, after calling out and not receiving any response, Ramisa's mother broke down the door with the help of the other flat tenants and entered.

They found Ramisa's body separated from head in a bucket in the bathroom of the suspect’s residence. Swapna was standing there.

During interrogation, Swapna said Sohel locked Ramisa in the bathroom, then raped and killed her, also dismembering her arms at the shoulders.

No member of the Dhaka Bar Association has agreed to provide legal services for the suspects so far.

On May 23, the government appointed lawyer Azizur Rahman Dulu a special public prosecutor to handle the case for the state. State-appointed lawyer Mula Kalimullah is representing the accused.

Case investigating officer Sub-Inspector Wahiduzzaman filed a chargesheet against the two suspects on May 24 after concluding the investigation.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ashraful Haque viewed the chargesheet and ordered it to trial, transferring it to the Dhaka Metropolitan Child Repression Prevention Tribunal of Judge Salekin. Judge Salekin then accepted the chargesheet and set Monday for the indictment hearing.