Staff Reporter:
A bus driver of the ‘Victor Classic’ bus service has been accused of threatening a woman with rape in Tongi, Gazipur. Following the incident, a case was filed at West Tongi Police Station on charges of as-sault and attempted murder after another passenger was beaten for protesting the act. Police have since detained two individuals in connection with the incident.
The matter was confirmed on Saturday (3 January) by the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of West Tongi Police Station, Md. Shahin Khan.
The OC said, “The driver and his assistant were detained on the day of the incident. During preliminary interrogation, they admitted the truth of the incident. The bus has been seized, and necessary legal action will be taken in accordance with the law.”
According to the victim’s complaint, on 1 January, the wife of Md. Naim Islam, a 16th batch student of the History Department of Jagannath University, began her journey on a ‘Victor Classic’ bus from the Uttara BNS area to Hossain Market in Tongi. She was seated in the reserved seat for women beside the driver.
The complaint states that after the woman introduced herself as a member of a Jagannath University stu-dent’s family, the driver began making provocative and obscene remarks. At one point, when the bus reached the traffic police box in front of Safiuddin Sarkar Academy, Naim Islam attempted to record a video on his mobile phone. At that time, the driver pushed him against the bus window and threw his phone away.
When the victim asked the driver to stop the bus in front of the police box, he refused. As she started screaming, the driver allegedly threatened her with rape inside the bus. A passenger named Nur Nabi came forward to protest the incident, leading to a scuffle among the driver, his assistant, and other pas-sengers.
Later, when the bus stopped at the Hossain Market area, the woman was safely helped off the bus with the assistance of passengers. However, after everyone else had gotten off, Nur Nabi was attacked when he was alone. The driver, his assistant, and another person allegedly beat him with iron rods, leaving him seriously injured.
Subsequently, with the help of local residents, the bus was stopped. Although the driver and his assistant managed to flee, another driver was detained and handed over to the police.
In this incident, Md. Naim Islam filed a case at West Tongi Police Station on charges of threatening rape and attempted murder. He alleged, “After the incident, around 3:30 am, 15–20 people from the bus owners’ association came to the police station and threatened us to withdraw the case.”
He further claimed that the accused driver had been released on bail four days earlier in a drug-related case from Uttara East Police Station.
