Assault in Narsingdi over outfit: Bail of prime accused Marzia canceled

A chamber court canceled the bail granted by the High Court to Marzia Akhter alias Sheela, accused in a case of assaulting a young woman at Narsingdi railway station for clothes.

Chamber judge M Inayetur Rahim passed the order on Sunday after hearing the application made by the state seeking suspension of the high court order.

On August 16, a twin bench of the High Court granted six months of interim bail to Marzia in the case. In the hearing that day, the court asked the persecution---in a civilized country, can you go to the railway station wearing such clothes?

Later, the state filed an application seeking a stay of the High Court's order granting bail to Marzia, which came up for hearing yesterday in the chamber court.

Attorney General AM Amin Uddin appeared in the court in favour of the prosecution accompanied by assistant attorney general M Saiful Alam while lawyer Zahurul Islam and Md Kamal Hossain were present in the hearing on behalf of Marzia.

The bail granted by the High Court to Marzia was suspended by the chamber court. The chamber court sent the state's petition to the regular bench of the appellate division for hearing on August 29, , lawyer Kamal Hossain told the media.

The victim is a student of a private university in Dhaka. She went to Narsingdi from Dhaka with a friend on May 17 after seeing videos of various street foods on online.

On her way back, she was waiting for the train at Narsingdi railway station early the next morning. At that time, the young woman was assaulted and beaten up for wearing jeans and tops.

Two friends who were with her were also beaten up. One person videotaped the entire scene, swearing in foul language. He posted this video on Facebook. This video went viral on social media. Many expressed their anger over the harassment of the young woman for her clothes.

After this incident, Narsingdi Railway Police filed a case in Bhairab Railway Police Station under the Women and Child Abuse Prevention Act. Marzia was arrested in this case on 30 May 30.