A Lalmonirhat court on Friday sent 10 people to jail in connection with the two cases filed over obstructing government duties, vandalising vehicles, and attacking the police following a clash over the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl.
The police conducted raids in different parts of Bhelabari union of Aditmari on Thursday night and arrested the individuals, including Rashedul Mia, 20, Mehedi Hasan, 20, Zahid Hasan, 22, Fazlul Haque, 43, Asaduzzaman, 45, Abdur Rashid, 62, Anand Kumar, 20,
Uttam Kumar, 20, Nilkant, 40, and Jiban Chandra Barman, 24.
Local people said again that a tense situation, along with fear, was prevailing in some villages of the union as many male members had left their homes and had been in hiding apprehending arrest.
The Lalmonirhat district administration on Thursday filed the second case against 1,500 unidentified people while the police earlier on Wednesday had filed the first case against 300-400 unidentified people -- the number was later raised to 1,500 -- over the violence that erupted on June 16.
Aditmari police station officer-in-charge Nazmus Shakib Sajib said that investigations into the cases were under way.
‘Ten people involved in the incident have been arrested and sent to jail through the court. Operations to arrest the other accused were going on,’ he added.
The violence, which left 37 police personnel, including the Lalmonirhat superintendent of police and the Aditmari police station OC, injured and police cars vandalised, was allegedly triggered by police negligence, with the OC, now attached to the police lines, refusing to record a general dairy after the child had gone missing on June 15.
On June 16, local people discovered the victim’s body wrapped in a sack and buried in a corn field near the victim’s house.
Angry villagers rushed towards the house of the prime suspect and set it on fire, reducing several rooms and household belongings to ashes.
Violent clashes between the police and locals erupted when the police went there to arrest the suspects in the cases.
A Lalmonirhat court on June 17 sent prime accused in the rape and murder case Bidhan Chandra Roy and his father Ranjit Kumar to jail after recording Bidhan’s confessional statement.
