Majnu, the lone suspect in the rape of a Dhaka University student in the capital’s Kurmitola area, yesterday confessed he committed the crime, court sources said.   

He told the magistrate that he was lying in wait for a victim that day. When he saw the girl walking from Kurmitola bus stop, he grabbed her from behind, gagged her and took her to an isolated place nearby, the sources added.

“I beat her and raped her. But she was still able to escape,” Majnu said in his confessional statement, adding that he tried to strangle her and at one stage she lost her consciousness.                 

“Not killing her was a mistake,” the court sources quoted him as saying.

After raping the girl, he took her watch, money and cell phone.

Majnu said he had committed such offences several times before, adding that rape was “a petty matter and natural activity for him”.

Metropolitan Magistrate Tofazzal Hossain recorded the statement at his chamber after Detective Branch of Police Inspector Abu Siddique, also the investigation officer of the case, produced him before the court.

According to the sources, the magistrate then ordered to send him to Keraniganj Central Jail.

On January 5, the DU student was raped while she was walking from Kurmitola bus stop to a friend’s house near Shewrapara around 3:30pm. She had just gotten off a university bus.

After regaining consciousness around 10:00pm, she somehow managed to make it to the house of her friend, who later took her to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. 

The next day, the girl’s father filed a case with Cantonment Police Station, accusing unknown people.

On January 8, Rab arrested Majnu from Shewrapara. Later, he was handed over to the DB, which is now probing the case. The following day, he was placed on a seven-day remand. Rab said the victim identified the arrestee as the rapist. 

The rape incident sparked protests and condemnations across the country.