The two met in 2022 due to their jobs in the same government office. A year later, a love affair developed between the two. The woman alleged that her co-worker raped her on the pretext of taking her to a friend’s house. Later, she had sexual relations with him multiple times on the promise of marriage. Finally, the woman threatened to tell everyone about the incident if she did not get married. Then her boyfriend asked her to come to her village home in Rangpur.
According to the woman, she went to Rangpur city on April 2 as per her boyfriend’s instructions. Her boyfriend’s family members came to meet her. The next morning, he assured her that he would take her to her village home. At night, the boyfriend rented a room in a residential hotel in the city, introducing the woman as his wife. They had sexual relations again. The next day, the boyfriend left the hotel after promising to buy breakfast, but did not return. In this situation, the woman went to her boyfriend’s village home and went on a hunger strike for four days demanding marriage. Her boyfriend’s family members sent her back, promising to arrange a family wedding within 15 days.
However, without receiving any redress, the woman filed a complaint of rape under the pretext of marriage with her boyfriend at Tajhat police station in Rangpur on April 22. The police registered the complaint as a case under Section 9B of the ‘Prevention of Oppression of Women and Children (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025’.
210 cases in 4 months under new section of rape
The interim government issued the ‘Prevention of Oppression of Women and Children (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025’ on March 25 this year. A new Section 9B has been added after Section 9A of the Act. Section 9B deals with the punishment for ‘sexual acts committed through the pretext of marriage’.
The interim government issued the ‘Prevention of Oppression of Women and Children (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025’ on March 25 this year. A new Section 9B has been added after Section 9A of the Act. Section 9B deals with the punishment for ‘sexual acts committed through the pretext of marriage’.
According to the Law Ministry, in the four months since the new section came into effect, 210 cases have been filed across the country for ‘sexual acts under the pretext of marriage’ till July.
The maximum punishment for rape under the law is death penalty or life imprisonment. And the maximum punishment for sexual acts under the pretext of marriage is 7 years of rigorous imprisonment.
In the case filed at Tajhat Police Station in Rangpur, the woman alleged that the accused raped her multiple times from May 12, 2023 to April 3, 2025, promising to marry her.
The woman told Prothom Alo that she had been a victim of major fraud. She is not aware of any progress in the case. However, she is hopeful of getting justice.
A separate section has been made for ‘sexual acts under the pretext of marriage’ to reduce the backlog of rape cases
Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Tajhat Police Station in Rangpur Md. Shahjahan Ali told Prothom Alo that the accused has taken bail from the High Court after the case was filed. They are working on preparing the charge sheet in the case.
The maximum penalty for rape under the law is death penalty or life imprisonment. And the maximum penalty for engaging in sexual intercourse under the pretext of marriage is 7 years of rigorous imprisonment.
A young woman from Chittagong filed a case under Section 9B at the capital’s Motijheel Police Station on July 1. According to her, she met a young man (25) from Dhaka on the social media Facebook. The young man asked her to come to Dhaka and meet him.
In her statement, the young woman said that when she came to Dhaka, the young man arranged for her to stay by renting a hotel room. He raped her multiple times on the promise of marriage.
Regarding this case, a police official told Prothom Alo on condition of anonymity that the girl’s complaint was found to be true in the initial investigation.
On July 14, the press wing of the chief advisor to the interim government presented statistics on crime from the police headquarters. Crime statistics from 2020 to June of this year are presented.
The amendment to the law includes the formation of a separate tribunal to try the crime of child rape, including sexual acts against boys and girls under the name of ‘rape’, reducing the investigation and trial time in rape cases, and adding a new section called ‘sexual acts through the enticement of marriage’. And the obligation of DNA testing in rape cases has been lifted.
According to statistics, 4,105 rape cases were registered across the country in the 10 months from September last year to June this year. 392 rape cases were registered in January this year. 337 in February. 483 in March. 537 in April. 503 in May. and 492 in June.
Year-wise, it is said that from January to June this year, 2,744 rape cases were registered. 4,394 in 2024. 5,191 in 2023. 6,322 in 2022. 6,341 in 2021. 6,555 in 2020.
In early March, a child was raped in Magura. The child later died while undergoing treatment. Amid widespread protests across the country, the interim government amended the law to speed up the trial of rape cases.
The amendment includes the formation of a separate tribunal to try the crime of child rape, including sexual acts against boys under the name of ‘rape’, reducing the investigation and trial time in rape cases, and adding a new section punishing ‘sexual acts through the enticement of marriage’. And the obligation of DNA testing in rape cases has been lifted.
On July 14, the press wing of the chief advisor to the interim government presented statistics from the police headquarters on crime. According to the statistics, 4,105 rape cases were registered across the country in the 10 months from September last year to June this year. 392 rape cases were registered in January this year. 337 in February. 483 in March. 537 in April. 503 in May. And 492 in June.
In an interview published in Prothom Alo on March 28 regarding the addition of Section 9B to the ordinance, Legal Advisor Professor Asif Nazrul said, “A review of the cases filed on rape charges has shown that there are two types of cases. One is rape with fraudulent consent or promise of marriage. The other is rape without any kind of relationship, such as the case of the child in Magura. There is a preponderance of cases on rape with promise of marriage. Due to these cases, the trial of horrific rape cases without relationship was delayed. In order to speed up the trial of brutal rape cases without relationship, the section ‘Punishment for sexual acts through the enticement of marriage’ has been added and separated. The investigation and trial period for the first-mentioned crimes has been reduced; But in the case of the second type of crime (‘sexual intercourse through the enticement of marriage’), this period has not been reduced, and separate punishment provisions (maximum seven years imprisonment) have been kept for these crimes.
—Fozul Azim, legal analyst and retired district judge
In the same interview, the legal advisor said that no new crime has been defined through the section related to ‘sexual intercourse through the enticement of marriage’. Many cases were filed under the previous law on the allegation that this was latent in the conventional definition of rape. The difference is that now these will be tried according to the new provisions. On the other hand, apart from ‘enticement of marriage’, attempts to obtain consent for sexual relations by deception in other ways may be tried, and those crimes will be tried according to the conventional definition of rape.
Legal analyst and retired district judge Fozul Azim told Prothom Alo from his judicial experience that the crime of sexual relations without consent and with consent were previously tried under the same section of rape. As a result, it was difficult to consider cases of consensual sexual intercourse (with a woman over 16 years of age) as rape. The nature of these two crimes is different. The elements are also different. As a result, most of the time, the criminals would get away with it because the cases were not properly defined. The victims were deprived of justice. For this reason, judges have long been proposing to keep cases of sexual intercourse with the promise of marriage or by showing temptation in a separate section. Because, this is a different nature of crime. In most cases, women are victims of fraud in such incidents. It is important for the victimized women to get justice here.
According to the annual statistics of the Police Headquarters, there were 2,744 rape cases from January to June of this year. In 2024, 4,394. In 2023, 5,191. In 2022, 6,322. In 2021, 6,341. In 2020, 6,555.
210 cases in 4 months under new section of rape
Fouzul Azim said, since ‘sexual acts through the enticement of marriage’ is a separate section, the victimized women will get justice, and the perpetrator will also be punished. The aspect of making a separate section is positive. It will take some more time to evaluate its impact. However, there is a risk of misuse of this section too. There is an opportunity for the judge to use his wisdom to prevent misuse by reviewing the evidence.
‘Fake cases’ in the new section too
On June 18, a woman filed a case against her landlord at the Pallabi police station in the capital on the charge of ‘sexual acts through the enticement of marriage’. The police and the police said that during the investigation, it was found that the woman had an extramarital affair with a man. The woman had earlier filed a case against this man for ‘rape under the enticement of marriage’. In that case, he made the landlord a witness. Later, the woman ‘agreed’ with the accused. Then, on the advice of that person, the woman filed a case against the landlord on the charge of ‘rape under the enticement of marriage’. When this information came out during the investigation, the woman admitted to filing a ‘fake case’. She wants to withdraw the case.
A police officer told Prothom Alo that there is a process to withdraw the case. As part of this process, the police will submit a ‘final report’ on the case.
Legal advisor Asif Nazrul mentioned in an interview with Prothom Alo that the amended ordinance has provisions to prevent false and harassing cases. In this regard, he said in the interview that amendments have been made to Section 17 of the law. If the judge thinks that it is a false and harassing case, in that case, the judge can impose punishment (compensation, maximum imprisonment of two years).
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