Accused Advocate Paltan Das, who was facing rape charges, appeared in court wearing a lawyer’s gown for his bail application. However, the court rejected his application and ordered him to be sent to jail. The 4th Chattogram Metropolitan Session Judge Kazi Shariful Islam gave this order on Sunday, March 5th. Earlier, SI Mehedi Hasan of Kotwali police station submitted the charge sheet to the prosecution wing of the court on February 20th, after investigating the case. The charge sheet included accusations from seven witnesses against Paltan Das. The hearing regarding the acceptance of the charge sheet was scheduled for Sunday, where a bail application was made on behalf of the accused. The court rejected the bail application and ordered Paltan Das to be sent to jail. At the same time, the case was transferred to Nari O Shishu Nirjaton Daman Tribunal 1.
This case involving the alleged rape of an apprentice lawyer has come to light, with the accused being identified as Paltan Das. The plaintiff’s lawyer, Shaheen Sultana Hira, said that the victim had met Paltan in 2017 when she sought his advice on family land acquisition during her first year at Chittagong Law College. This led to the accused developing a love relationship with her, which he used to pressure her into having physical relations under the pretext of marriage and love.
According to Hira, Paltan called the victim to various places in the city, including the chamber of the Chittagong court, between February 20th, 2020 and January 25th, 2021. The victim became pregnant at one point and informed Paltan, who asked for an abortion. When she refused, he promised to marry her but did not follow through with his promise. His family also tried to silence the victim.
The victim filed a complaint against Paltan with the Chittagong Bar Association, but no solution was found. Eventually, she filed a case against him under the Nari O Shishu Nirjaton Daman Ain 2003 at the Kotwali police station on June 6th, 2021. Paltan was arrested on June 10th and sent to jail on June 11th, but was granted bail by the court until the DNA test report come. He was released on bail on June 23rd, after spending 13 days in custody.
The victim alleged that Paltan had threatened and humiliated her socially, using his position as a lawyer to intimidate her. He also spread intimate photos of them through social media, threatening her feminine dignity. The victim filed a complaint about this, and many people made derogatory comments about her character in the Facebook group of the Chittagong lawyers’ association.
The DNA test, which confirmed Paltan as the biological father of the child, was conducted when the child was two and a half months old after birth. Paltan, however, denied the results of the DNA report and applied for re-testing in the case.
SS/womenvoice
