Police today arrested a man in a case filed over the rape of a 14-year-old girl in Dhaka's Pallabi.

The accused, Md Anwar Hossain Sayeed, 50, was detained by locals and handed over to Pallabi Police Station, said police.

According to police and family sources, the incident took place around 2:40am in the Thirteen Hearts Camp area, where both the victim and the accused lives.

A Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) press release said the accused allegedly gagged the victim and forcibly took her to his house. There, he beat her and suffocated her with a pillow, making her unconscious and raped her.

He later left her inside a water reservoir in the camp and fled.

The victim was later found unconscious by local, who alerted others. Residents and the victim’s family rushed to the spot, rescued her, and took her to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, according to the press release.

Police said locals caught the accused and handed him over to Pallabi Police Station.

Hasan Basir, officer-in-charge of Pallabi Police Station, told The Daily Star that the victim’s brother filed a case against Anwar with Pallabi Police Station under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000.

He will be produced before the court tomorrow, the OC added.

Talking to The Daily Star, the victim’s brother said the accused is a suspected drug addict. He also alleged that a few days earlier, he beat his wife and three daughters and one son and drove them away from the house. The family was now staying at a relative’s residence.

The victim is now being treated at the one-stop crisis centre (OCC) of DMCH, hospital sources said.