Staff Correspondent:
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested two more men for stripping naked and torturing a woman in Begumganj Upazila of Noakhali district.

Badal, the prime accused, and Delowar, chief of Delowar gang, have been arrested from Dhaka and Narayanganj on early Monday.

Begumganj police station Officer-in-Charge Md Harun-ur-Rashid confirmed the matter and said two other accused were arrested in separate drives on Sunday.

The arrestees are Md Rahim, 20, son of Sheikh Abdul Dulal from Joykrishnapur village under Eklashpur union of the upazila, and Md Rahmat Ullah, 41, son of late Abdur Rahim from the same area.

There are allegations that five men Delowar, Badal, Kalam, Rahim and an unnamed man – all members of a criminal gang Delowar Bahini – stripped the woman naked and brutally tortured her.

However, according to the case statement, the head of the criminal gang, Delowar, is not on the list of the accused. Badal, 22, was made the main accused in the case.

The other eight accused are – Md Rahim, 20, Abul Kalam, 22, Israfil Hossain, 22, Saju, 21, Samsuddin alias Sumon, 39, Abdur Rob alias Chowdhury Mia, 48, Arif, 18 and Rahmat Ullah, 41.

The accused confined the women and her family in their house for 32 days after the incident. At one point they were forced to leave their house.

She was later rescued from her relative’s house in Masterpara area, said the OC.

Meanwhile, after 33 days, the tortured woman filed two cases under the Women and Children Repression Act and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act with Begumganj police station around 1:00 am on Monday.

On September 2, the criminal gang forced into the woman’s house, tied up her husband in the next room and tried to rape her. When she defended herself, they stripped her naked, beat her, and video recorded the whole thing – which later went viral on social media.

Moazzem Hossain Sohag, a member of ward 9 of Eklashpur union, said the woman came to complain about the torture on her but did not mention the culprits. After the incident, she and her family left their house in fear of the culprits.

Eklashpur Union Parishad Chairman Saidur Rahman Dipu said Delowar, a drug dealer, and his associates have caused this barbaric incident. He demands exemplary punishment for them.

The woman’s father said those involved in the incident are influential for which they were afraid to complain against them. However, he demands justice now.