News

A translation of ‘Daily Janakantha’, Sunday, 18 May 2008: She survived gang rape, poison, but was strangled next day: For Bituni (Ashru) De Silva (14), a Christian minority schoolgirl, being gang raped wasn’t enough; she had to be killed at the end. The perpetrators “Mehedi’ gang, broke into her room in the dark of night, pointed a gun against her face, raped her and then poured poison into her mouth. Before raping Bituni, the same group of perpetrators had gang-raped Bituni's mom. Bituni was taken to the local hospital in a critical condition. But the same group of rapists later traced her to the hospital bedroom, and strangled her.
This bone-chilling incident took place in South Bhadarthi village, in Kaligonj Thana, in the district of Ghazipur. On Saturday, the murdered gang rape victim Bituni’s dad, James De Silva, described the incident in a press conference in Dhaka Reporters Unity. Bituni’s mom and dad broke down in tears during the press conference. Mr. De Silva stated that these perpetrators are so powerful that even five days after the incident, they are freely moving in a heroic manner. As no arrests have been made so far, they have started intimidating Bituni’s family members. And because the family is afraid, he and his family members are hiding from these rapists and murderers.
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Mr. De Silva read out a written statement at the press conference. Other family members present were his wife, Sima; his second daughter Setu (11); and two sons Jay (7) and Arnab (3). Mrs. De Silva, who was also gang raped, sobbed while speaking - she said that the perpetrators
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broke into their home on the night of April 30th. As she came out of her bedroom, they pressed a gun at her and grabbed her. Then they took their turn in raping her in front of her daughter Bituni (who was a straight ‘A’ student in grade eight.) After Bituni came forward to try to protect her mom, they took Mrs. De Silva into the bathroom. And then they started raping her 14-year-old daughter. Later, they poured some poisonous liquid inside Bituni’s mouth, and, left her unconscious body on the floor. Mrs. De Silva telephoned her husband James, who was in Dhaka at the time, and informed him of what happened. Meanwhile, she got help to take her gang-raped daughter to the local hospital for treatment. Bituni started recovering. She was able to speak again.
The gang rapists (Mehedi (24), Dulal (28), Russel (20) Sohail and Jessik) managed to get into the hospital room and were found near Bituni. As the hospital staff had become aware of the gang rape incident, Mehedi and his gang used some pretext to persuade Bituni’s mom (herself a gang rape victim of the same men) to go out to buy some medicine for Bituni. This gave them the chance to strangle Bituni. After Bituni’s mom came back with the medicine, she found Mehedi and his men sitting quietly and watching a seemingly unconscious body of Bituni on her hospital bed. The helpless mom frantically started shaking Bituni’s body while these men quickly sneaked out. Later she called from a cell phone to inform the local news paper staff and the law enforcement authorities that Mehedis had killed Bituni by strangling her inside the hospital.-------------
Mr. James De Silva pointed out at the press conference that when he went to the police station to file charges, he found that Mr. Abu Bakar Banu, Chairman of Tumulia Union Council, appearing there on behalf of the accused and pressuring him to drop the charges. As well, Mr. Banu was hurling profanities at Mr. De Silva right inside the grounds of the police station. Mr. De Silva further complained that he found out five days after the incident that Mr. Khandarkar, local police officer in charge, had made up a case all by himself without the knowledge of the De Silvas.
James De Silva demanded that: Justice is done for the heinous crimes committed on his daughter: The accused be arrested without delay; and a rapid trial is held to serve exemplary punishment to those responsible for the crimes; and. the local investigating officer is replaced.
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Another story: A translation of the news in ‘Daily Janata’ May 7th, 2008: Night long rape of mom and child in Kaligonj Daughter strangled to death: Filed by Kaligonj reporter: The perpetrators took turns through the night of May 1st and raped mom and child, in South Bhadarthi village, in Kaligonj Thana. The child victim Bituni (14) is the daughter of Mr. James De Silva and, was a straight ‘A’ student in Grade 8 at Saint Mary Girls School. She was gang raped throughout the night by these men and then they forced poison down her mouth, and held her mouth shut. After Bituni showed no sign of consciousness, the criminals thought she was dead, and ran away.
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Sima De Silva, Bituni’s mom, sought help from some local people to move the girl to a hospital, Bituni made good progress after receiving treatment at the hospital. Within a short time period, however, the rapists who had been tracking Bituni’s whereabouts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------arrived at the hospital and got into the recovery room of Bituni. They surrounded Bituni and strangled her. For a few days, James De Silva and family found it very difficult to file any legal charges- they were terrified due to ongoing threats, intimidation and harassment coming from these perpetrators. Five days passed after this bone-chilling incident before Mr. De Silva went to the local police station to file a case against the armed gang of rapists. Following details of the incident emerged according to Kaligonj Thana case # 4 dated May 5th, 2008.
In Tumulia union’s South Bhadarthi village in Kaligonj Thana: Around 10.30 pm the culprits broke into Mr. James De Silva’s house. Mehedi (22), Dulal (23), Russell (20), and three other men pointed guns at Mr. De Silva’s wife Sima and raped her for two hours after when they detained her inside the bathroom. They then proceeded to rape Sima’s daughter Bituni, and, took their turns throughout the night. At the end of the ordeal, they poured some poison into Bituni’s mouth before fleeing the scene.
According to some local residents of the village, Mehedi is son of Mr. Abdul Aziz. Mehedi had been harassing Bituni daily on her way to the school. She had resisted these unwelcome advances – this was why Mehedi used arms (to break in to the house) to rape Bituni and her mom, and, to suffocate Bituni to her death. After having survived this unprecedented terror, and once the night was gone, the mom arranged to move Bituni in an almost unconscious state in to a local hospital. Bituni gradually recovered in the hospital after receiving treatment.
Meanwhile, Mehedi and some of his friends had been watching Bituni’s whereabouts and later followed her to the hospital. They somehow, conned Bituni’s mom, and sent her out of the hospital to fetch some medicine for her daughter. When Mrs. De Silva came back with the medicine, she found Bituni was held on Mehdi’s lap while she was failing in her struggle to breathe. As soon as they had noticed her being back in Bituni’s hospital room, they made their exit in a hurry. Mrs. De Silva soon realized that during her absence from the hospital, Mehedi was working on the ways to throttle Bituni. In a desperate rush Bituni was soon removed to the Fortune hospital in Dhaka where the attending doctors declared her dead.
Bituni’s body was buried on the same day she died in the cemetery of Tumulia church, without first documenting a report of ‘Death under suspicious circumstances.’ The gang raped mom, Sima, said: these men raped me at gunpoint first before taking their turns to rape my daughter and, then they tried to kill her by throwing poison down her throat. In the hospital soon after Bituni had recovered, they came and strangled her. Bituni’s dad, James, said: the murderers of my daughter are ‘perpetrators’ of the most frightening kind- I want them tried. Had I been home on the day of the incident, I would have done every thing possible to protect the dignity of my wife and my daughter – even if I were killed by them. I don’t know why Lord has still kept me alive? Just come and see how I am barely passing my days. Mr. Khandarkar Mohammed Manjir Rahman, the investigating officer & the officer in charge of the police station, said that he is trying to arrest the culprits.
(Translated by: Basu Bose >>bbose9177@rogers.com<< of Toronto, Canada).