Ramisa murder: Accused couple produced before court as charge sheet nears filing

Two accused in the rape and murder of eight-year-old Ramisa Akter in the capital's Pallabi area were produced before a Dhaka court today. The prime accused, Sohel Rana, and his wife Swapna Akter, were brought to the lockup of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court between 11:20am and 11:45am, Sub-Inspector Ripon Mollah, in-charge of the lockup, told The Daily Star.

Police will submit the charge sheet before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court this noon, and the case will be transferred to the Children Violence Suppression Tribunal of Dhaka for its disposal, said Mia Mohammad Ashish Bin Hasan, deputy commissioner of DMP's prosecution division. "We have already taken necessary steps so that everything goes smoothly," he added. Yesterday, the government appointed Advocate Azizur Rahman Dulu as Special Public Prosecutor to conduct the sensational case. On Friday, the Dhaka Bar Association decided not to provide legal support to the accused through an emergency virtual meeting of the executive committee of the bar association, considering the gravity of this heinous offence.

On Tuesday, Ramisa, a Class 2 student at Popular Model High School, was found beheaded in the house of her neighbour, Sohel, 31, after she was raped and killed. A day after the killing, the victim's father, Abdul Hannan Mollah, filed the case with Pallabi Police Station, accusing the couple and an unidentified person. On the same day, accused Sohel confessed before a magistrate to raping and killing Ramisa.

According to the case statement, Sohel, a neighbour of the victim, lured Ramisa into his room and raped her. To conceal the crime, he slit her throat and attempted to dismember the body.