Slain fatwa victim's rapist arrested in Bangladesh

Police in Shariatpur district in the Dhaka division said they arrested the man who is alleged to have raped 15-year old Hena from Savar town on the outskirts of the capital on a secret tip off.

"Mahbub (the rapist) was arrested from an abandoned house at Savar on a tip off and brought him to Shariatpur, for questioning and subsequent legal formalities," a senior police official told PTI.

Mosammet Hena, 15, was sentenced by the local mosque to be caned after being allegedly raped by her married cousin and then accused of having an affair with him.
The Daily Star newspaper today reported that the arbitration took place on January 24, a day after Hena was brutally tortured by her rapist's wife Shilpi, who discovered her husband with Hena.

After receiving 70 lashes, Hena became unconscious and later succumbed to her wounds at a local facility.

Today's arrest came as Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) authorities submitted the fresh autopsy report identifying injury marks on her body which was exhumed on a High Court order as the initial forensic examination failed to find out reasons of her death.
"After receiving the report (at their chamber) the judges commented that there is a vast difference between the DMCH report and the one prepared earlier at the Shariatpur Sadar Hospital," Deputy Attorney General ABM Altaf Hossain told newsmen.

The court, he said, also ordered personal appearance of the two government doctors of Shariatpur before the court to explain their role in preparing the initial controversial autopsy report tomorrow.

The autopsy was carried out by a three-member forensic expert team to ascertain the reason of her death as the reports of police inquest and the autopsy failed to convince the High Court bench comprising judges AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Sheikh Mohammad Zakir Hossain.

The two-member High Court bench today asked the Shariatpur district administration to send Hena's father Darbesh Khan and her cousin Minu Begum to the court tomorrow for recording their statements.