The police yesterday conducted a failed raid on the residence of Shafat Ahmed, prime accused of raping two university girls at a Banani hotel on March 28 and recording the incident on video. Shafat is the son of Dildar Ahmed, one of the owners of Apan Jewellers, a top jewellery brand in the country.
The police are also yet to trace Nayeem Ashraf and Sadman Sakif, two friends of Shafat who were allegedly present during the ‘rape’ and are the accused in the case. Another accused, Shafat’s bodyguard Billal, also remain fugitive since the filing of the case. This was the second time the police raided Shafat’s Gulshan home. However, they could not even find his passport, arousing the suspicion that he may have fled the country.
After emerging from the failed raid on the Gulshan building, Sub Inspector Milton Datta of Banani Police Station told reporters that Shafat was not at the house.
“You saw that we raided the house today. We also raided it yesterday. He is not here. We are searching for the accused,” he told journalists. Shafat’s father Dildar, a rich and influential person, maintains that his son is innocent. According to him, his son has been framed.
“This is a tactic to blackmail him. Whatever happened at Hotel Raintree was consensual,” he told reporters following the police raid. Meanwhile, Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Kazi Rezaul Haque yesterday blasted police for their failure to trace and arrest the accused in the rape case.
“I think the police can arrest the accused even if they try now. We saw sheer negligence and inaction from the police. We also came across reports on newspapers blaming the police over their action in the case. This cannot be accepted at all,” he said at a programme in the capital yesterday.
Earlier, on Monday, the NHRC formed a five-member committee to investigate the case on its own. This step came after the media reported alleged police apathy and their dillydallying in filing a complaint. However, the police maintain that they would leave no stone unturned in bringing the accused to justice regardless of their wealth or social status. The girls alleged that Billal, Nayeem and Sadman helped Shafat record the rape on video, stalked them, and threatened to upload the video on the social media if they went to police. They finally mustered the courage to go to police to file a case on May 6, although the incident took place on March 28.