Writ filed seeking HC direction to exhume Nargis’ body
Dhaka: A writ petition was filed with the High Court (HC) on Wednesday seeking a direction to exhume the body of Nargis Begum, who was allegedly raped and killed in India last month, for an autopsy.
The writ petition was filed with the section concerned of the court by Rahela Begum, the victim’s aunt, and Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation.
The petitioners also sought for the documents the Indian authorities had provided to their Bangladesh counterpart while handing over the body.
The Home Secretary, the Foreign Affairs Secretary, the deputy commissioner of Khulna and a sub-inspector of Sonadanga Police Station were made respondents to the writ petition.
Advocate Elina Khan, who is representing the petitioners, told reporters that an HC bench comprising of Justice Kazi Reza Ul Haque and Justice Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman is expected to hear the petition.
Besides appealing for an autopsy of the victim’s body, the petitioners wanted to know what explanation was offered while the body was handed over, she added.
Earlier on 9 March, Nargis Akhter, 20, daughter of Shahabuddin of Sonadanga, Khulna, was kidnapped by a group of miscreants from a passenger train at Kanpur on her way to New Delhi from Kolkata to India.
The victim was travelling along with her mother and six-year-old girl during the incident. They were visiting India for medical treatment.
The victim’s mother and daughter were sent to Bangladesh without passport by some locals in India as the blind woman and the baby were crying near the railway station at Kanpur in India.
The Indian police later recovered the passports and the body of the victim from Ladon in Firojabad, and later on 19 April, handed over the body to Benapole immigration police.
Talking to reporters at Benaple Port on 19 April, Rahela Begum, the victim’s aunt, alleged that her nephew was killed after rape by miscreants in India.