5 indicted for murdering Rupa after gang-rape

A trial court has framed the charges against five transport workers in a case filed for murdering law student Jakia Sultana Rupa after gang-rape on a moving bus in Tangail.

Tangail District and Sessions Judge Rabiul Hassan, acting judge for the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal, framed the charges on Wednesday.

The judge rejected petitions filed by the accused seeking bail, discharge and reinvestigation of the suit, and set January 3, 2018 to begin trial in the case.

The victim Jakia Sultana Rupa was killed after being gang raped on a running bus on her way home in Mymensingh from Bogra on the night of August 25.

The rapists disposed of her body in Tangail’s Madhupur forest area.

Police recovered the body around 11pm at night and buried it in Tangail’s central graveyard as an unidentified one on Saturday morning.

On August 29, police arrested bus helper Akram, 35, Shamim, 26, and Jahangir, 19, bus driver Habibur, 45, and its supervisor Safar Ali, 55, in this connection who confessed to their crimes.

Later on August 31, Rupa’s body was exhumed and handed over to her family.