Noakhali Correspondent

A speech-impaired young woman (21) has been accused of being raped multiple times in Kabirhat Upazila of Noakhali. The medical report states that the victim is currently 7 months pregnant. The victim's mother has filed a petition case with the Noakhali Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-2 as the plaintiff in this incident.

The victim's mother Jahanara Begum (47) filed the case with the tribunal on Thursday afternoon. Md. Yusuf (25), son of Mostafa of Char Jatra village in Char Elahi union of Kabirhat upazila, has been named as the main accused in the case.

According to the case file, Jahanara Begum is a very poor and widowed woman. Her daughter is speech and intellectually disabled. In order to earn a living, she used to beg and work in other people's homes, and sometimes she would take her daughter with her.

The complaint states that on December 10 last year, at around 8 pm, Yusuf forcibly raped the victim by holding a towel over her face near a betel nut orchard on the southeast side of Char Mondaliya Bazar. The victim and her mother were threatened with death if they reported the incident to anyone. The complaint states that she was later raped several times by promising marriage and money.

Later, when Jahanara Begum became suspicious after seeing changes in her daughter's body, she went to a local pharmacy and later to a private hospital in Maizdi for an ultrasonogram. The doctors there said that the victim was 28 weeks pregnant.

When the incident came to light, locals held a human chain program at Char Mondaliya Bazar on July 23 demanding punishment for the accused. There are allegations that some influential local circles are putting pressure on the victim's family to protect the accused and are trying to take the incident to a different angle.

The statement further states that when the victim's mother went to Kabirhat Police Station to file a case on July 29, the police station authorities advised her to file a case in court. In view of this, the case was filed in the tribunal under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act on July 30.

In the context of the case, the court has ordered Kabirhat Police Station to take necessary legal and medical measures to treat the victim, conduct necessary tests related to pregnancy, and determine the paternity of the unborn child, Judge Fatema Ferdousi of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-2.

Noakhali Judge Court lawyer Mohammad Shamsul Alam Shafi said that since the victim was disabled and poor, attempts were made to resolve the issue socially initially..