A Cox’s Bazar court on Wednesday sent five suspects to jail after recording ‘confessions’ of two of them in a case filed for the rape of a 40-year-old woman and her 15-year-old daughter by armed robbers.

Accused Md Tareq and Mehedi Hasan made statement before the court reportedly confessing their involvement in the crime after the police produced them before the senior judicial magistrate court for Chakaria.

The same court also sent three other accused—Kefayat Hossain, Md Tanzid and Tofazzal Hossain—to the jail, reported New Age correspondent in the district.

The woman on early Wednesday filed the case with the Chakaria police station against seven named and five-six unnamed people.

Chakaria police station officer-in-charge Md Monir Hossain said that the police conducted day-long operations and detained six suspects, including Rezaul Karim, on Tuesday.

Later, the five were shown arrested in the case and sent to the court on Wednesday, said Monir, adding that the victims identified four suspects among the arrested five.

Suspect Rezaul was shown arrested under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure on suspicion and later released after he was produced before the court, said the police officer.

Monir said that operations continued to arrest other suspects.

When asked about the arrested suspects, Monir said that they were members of an organised local robber network and some of them were arrested and jailed in previous robbery incidents.

‘They again engaged in robbery after being released on bail before the Eid,’ he said, adding that most of the suspects live in nearby Purba Borbhola union of Chakaria upazila.

Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital’s resident medical officer Sabuktagin Mahmud Shohel said that the victims were admitted to the hospital’s One-Stop Crisis Centre on Tuesday and later released from the hospital in the afternoon after treatment and required tests.

Investigating officer of the case inspector Md Masud said that a group of robbers on early Tuesday entered the victims’ house at newly formed Matamuhuri upazila in Cox’s Bazar cutting through window grilles and robbed cash, gold jewellery and other valuables.

They assaulted and raped the woman and her 15-year-old daughter before fleeing the scene, said Masud.

Rights organisations, including the Ain o Salish Kendra and the Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, on Wednesday issued separate statements protesting at and expressing deep concern over the incident.

They demanded immediate identification and arrest of all the perpetrators.