Canteen boy arrested for raping female passenger in moving train’s dining compartment

Staff Correspondent

A woman passenger (44) has been accused of raping a canteen boy, Abu Bakkar Siddique (22), in the dining compartment of the Dhaka-Kurigram Express train. The incident took place on Sunday night. The Railway Police has arrested the canteen boy, Abu Bakkar Siddique (22), and sent him to court.

The victim woman filed a case at Santahar GRP police station on Tuesday. Along with canteen boy Abu Bakkar Siddique, two unidentified policemen who were in charge of security on the train have also been named as accused in the case. Abu Bakkar is a resident of Abdulpur area of ​​Natore.

According to the case report and railway police sources, the woman from Sirajganj Sadar area boarded the Kurigram Express from the capital’s Airport Station on Sunday night. Since the train did not stop at Sirajganj Station, she decided to get off at Parbatipur Station in Dinajpur to go to her relative’s house.

The woman alleged that after the train passed Sirajganj station, two policemen on security duty took her to the dining compartment, saying they would search her. There, the two policemen molested her and Abu Bakkar Siddique, the canteen boy in the dining compartment, raped her.

Where is a woman’s reputation safe in present-day Bangladesh?

Later, the woman called the national emergency service number 999 and filed a complaint. Upon receiving the information, a team from Santahar Railway Police Station arrested Abu Bakkar from the moving train. Santahar Railway Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Dulal Uddin confirmed the matter. He said that an investigation is underway to determine whether the two policemen were involved in the incident. The health examination of the victim woman has been completed at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in Bogra.

This incident once again proves how critical the safety of women passengers is in the country’s public transport—especially trains. Such an incident, occurring inside a moving train, in the presence of security personnel, raises the question—where is the safety of women in today’s Bangladesh?