Banani rape case: Shafat granted bail

Shafat Ahmed, son of Apan Jewellers owner Dildar Ahmed, was granted bail in a case filed over the rape of two private university students in a posh hotel in Dhaka’s Banani.

Judge Khademul Kayes of Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal 7 granted him the bail on November 7 after a hearing on Shafat’s bail petition, the court’s public prosecutor Afroza Farhana Ahmed told Dhaka Tribune on Saturday.

The court granted him bail after lawyers pleaded for the bail citing his ill health, she added.

Earlier on November 30, 2018, Shafat was granted bail in the same case. But the court on February 13 this year cancelled his bail and ordered him to be sent to prison. He was sent to jail on the same day.

On June 8, 2018, Inspector Ismot Ara Ame of the Women Support and Investigation Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, also the investigating officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet in the case naming five accused, including Shafat Ahmed.

Of the five accused, Shafat Ahmed and Nayem Ashraf were indicted for rape, while three others -- Shadman Sakif, Shafat’s driver Billal Hossain, and bodyguard Rahmat Ali---were charged with assisting in the rape.

Although the trial of the case began on July 13, 2017, progress is yet to be made, court sources said. 

Earlier in January, Shafat’s bodyguard Rahamat Ali secured bail from the High Court in the case. 

On March 15, Billal Hossain was granted bail by Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-2.

According to the case statement, the two girls went to the hotel, The Raintree Dhaka, in Banani around 9pm on March 28 last year, after being invited to Shafat’s birthday party. After the rooftop party ended around midnight, two out of the five accused raped the girls in two hotel rooms.

Shafat is the main accused in the case.

One of the two rape victims filed a case with Banani Police Station accusing the five people on May 6. 

Following the rape allegations, law enforcers arrested the five accused from Dhaka and Sylhet. Of them, Shafat, Nayem, Sakif and Billal gave confessional statements before magistrates on different dates.