Bangladeshi girl killed by madrasa teacher for reporting sexual harassment against him: police
Dhaka, Apr 19: A teenaged school girl in Bangladesh was allegedly burnt to death by her madrasa principal for reporting a sexual harassment case against him, triggering nationwide protests in the country.
Nusrat Jahan Rafi, 18, was set on fire at her school (madrasa) on April 6 by four burqa-clad assailants few days after she complained against principal Siraj-ud-Daula for inappropriately touching her after calling her in his office.
Siraj is one of the 17 people arrested in connection with the case.
Rafi succumbed to the injuries on April 10. Her death led to protests across Bangladesh with people on Thursday forming human chains and holding demonstrations seeking justice for the victim.
The demonstration sought stern punishment for the victim's murderers and expressed condolences to her bereaved family, the Dhaka Tribune reported.
Online news portal bdnews24.com quoted police as saying that Siraj orchestrated the killing of Rafi from jail after his arrest on Mar 27 in the case.
Deputy Inspector General Ruhul Amin, who is heading the probe committee, said the investigation will take several more days to wrap up as investigators are examining various documents.
He said Siraj had a history of condemnable behaviour that was known to the madrasa governing body.
The police officer also also hinted at involvement of political leaders in the murder.
Local politics is linked with the Nusrat incident. Two councillors from a party organised human-chain programmes for and against the principal, he said.
According to the report, the police is also investigating whether there has been negligence on the part of police while investigating the murder case.
We have found preliminary evidence against the former officer-in-charge of Sonagazi police station and senior police officers. We are taking this very seriously and are looking into it," he said.
But, had the local administration and madrasa managing committee taken action when the sexual harassment was first reported, this tragedy could have been avoided, he added.
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Voting begins for high-stakes civic polls in Maharashtra; all eyes on big battle for Mumbai
Mumbai (PTI): Voting in 29 municipal corporations across Maharashtra began on Thursday morning with spotlight on Mumbai, where the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is locked in an intense battle with the reunited Thackeray cousins for control of India's largest and richest civic body.
Polling for 2,869 seats spread across 893 wards in these municipal corporations began amid tight security at 7.30 am and will conclude at 5.30 pm. A total of 3.48 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 15,931 candidates.
In the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), whose annual budget is over Rs 74, 400 crore, 1,700 candidates are vying for 227 seats in elections being held after nine years, after a four-year delay. More than 25,000 police personnel have been deployed across Mumbai to oversee elections.
Except for Mumbai, the other urban bodies have multi-member wards. Vote count will take place on January 16.
These are the first BMC polls since the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena when Eknath Shinde, now Deputy Chief Minister, broke away with a majority of the party’s MLAs and allied with the BJP to become the chief minister.
The undivided Shiv Sena held sway over India's richest civic body for 25 years (1997-2022).
In a significant political turn of events ahead of the elections, estranged cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray, who head Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS, respectively, reunited last month after two decades in their bid to consolidate Marathi votes even as rival NCP factions forged a local alliance in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
The Congress, once a formidable political force in Maharashtra, has asserted its presence in Mumbai by stepping out of the shadow of its Maha Vikas Aghadi allies - Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP).
The grand old party has joined hands with Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh in the state capital.
Elections to the 29 municipal corporations are being held after a gap of several years, with terms of most of them having ended between 2020 and 2023. Of these, nine fall in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the most urbanised belt in India.
Voting is underway in the following municipal corporations: Mumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Solapur, Amravati, Akola, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Mira-Bhayandar, Nanded-Waghala, Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Latur, Malegaon, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Jalgaon, Ahilyanagar, Dhule, Jalna and Ichalkaranji.
