The nation has once again been gripped by outrage following the rape and murder of seven-year-old Ramisa in Dhaka’s Pallabi. Protests and human chains have emerged across the country, with citizens demanding swift justice.
Yet, amid the public demonstrations, the child’s father offered a sobering perspective to the media, “You cannot ensure trial. My daughter will not come back either. There is no precedent of trial. This will last for at most 15 days. Then another incident will happen. After that, it will be buried.”
His words, born of frustration with the judicial system, reflect a harsh reality.
While high-profile cases initially spark nationwide discussions, protests, and promises of expedited legal proceedings, the momentum inevitably fades.
An analysis of prominent rape and murder cases reveals that trials are frequently delayed not by legal loopholes, but by the poor implementation of existing laws.
Against this backdrop, the father’s description of justice as a “golden deer”, elusive and unattainable, resonates deeply.
Asia’s case: Verdict delivered, justice deferred
On 5 March 2025, eight-year-old Asia Khatun was raped while visiting her sister’s home in Magura. She died eight days later at Dhaka’s Combined Military Hospital (CMH) without ever regaining consciousness, igniting nationwide fury.
Prompted by public outcry, the interim government slashed the time limit for rape trials to 90 working days. Under this new framework, the Magura Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal sentenced the perpetrator, Hitu Sheikh, to death on 17 May 2025, just two and a half months after the crime.
Yet, a year later, the swift verdict remains a hollow victory. The sentence has not been implemented; the accused appealed, and the case is currently stalled in the higher courts, with the last hearing held in September of last year.
“It has been a year since the verdict. Where is the justice?” asked the victim’s mother, Ayesha Khatun, 37. “Hitu Sheikh’s two sons have already been acquitted. I fear that if this drags on, he will be acquitted too.”
She bitterly noted how public interest has evaporated: “After Asia died, everyone promised us justice. Now, no one cares. No one looked for us for an entire year, so why is everyone suddenly asking about her these last two days? I just want justice.”
Tonu murder case: A decade of delays
In March 2016, Sohagi Jahan Tonu, a first-year history student and theatre activist, was raped and murdered inside the heavily fortified Cumilla Cantonment. Her father found her body in a bush near a cantonment power house after she failed to return from a tutoring job. He promptly filed a case against unidentified attackers.
Early on, CID investigators found DNA evidence belonging to three men on Tonu’s clothing, but no matches were made. A decade later, on 6 April 6 this year, the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) finally sought court permission to match DNA samples against three suspects: retired Sergeant Zahid, Senior Warrant Officer Hafizur Rahman, and Soldier Shahinul Alam.
The case gained sudden momentum after Prime Minister Tarique Rahman ordered an inquiry into its stagnation. On 21 April, Hafizur Rahman was arrested in Keraniganj, Dhaka, and placed on remand for DNA testing, reigniting national outrage.
However, the other two suspects remain out of reach. Former soldier Shahinul Alam has reportedly fled to Kuwait, while Sergeant Zahid is believed to be hiding in the country. The PBI is currently tracking Zahid to collect his DNA.
The deadline to submit the investigation report has been deferred 81 times. Over ten years, seven investigators from four different agencies have handled the case, yet a formal charge sheet has never been filed.
Ira murder: Confession without closure
On 1 March this year, fifty-year-old Babu Sheikh lured eight-year-old Jannatul Naima Ira to a secluded area near Chattogram’s Chandranath Hill with chocolate. When the child screamed, resisting his attempt to rape her, Sheikh slit her throat and dumped her in a mountainside ditch.
In an extraordinary feat of survival, Ira managed to crawl back up to Chandranath Temple Road, where construction workers rescued her. She died in the hospital two days later.
Her mother initially filed an attempted murder case against unidentified attackers, which was later upgraded to a murder investigation.
Utilising CCTV footage from the hillside road, police identified and arrested Babu Sheikh on 3 March. The following day, he gave a full confessional statement in court.
However, nearly three months later, the legal process has stalled. Despite a recorded confession and clear video evidence, authorities have yet to submit the final investigation report.
Chingma Khyang case: Promises unfulfilled
On 5 May 2025, Chingma Khyang vanished while working in a jhum field in Bandarban’s Thanchi. Her family later discovered her body, and local residents quickly suspected three road construction labourers of raping and murdering her.
The next day, her husband, Suman Khyang, filed a formal case under the Prevention of Violence against Women and Children Act. The brutal crime ignited fury across the region, prompting indigenous communities to form human chains demanding justice, while 475 human rights activists and civil society members signed a joint statement calling for an immediate judicial inquiry.
A year later, those demands have yielded nothing; the police investigation report remains unsubmitted. Despite explicit statutory laws mandating that such investigations be wrapped up within 30 days and the trial resolved within three months, accountability remains entirely out of reach.
The gap between law and practice
Under Section 18 of the Prevention of Violence against Women and Children Act 2000, investigations face strict statutory deadlines: 15 working days if the suspect is caught red-handed, and 30 working days otherwise. The interim government had introduced a mandate further tightening the deadline for all rape case investigations to just 15 working days.
Yet, institutional reality tells a different story. Investigations routinely blow past these deadlines due to delayed forensic and DNA testing, witness unavailability, understaffed police departments, and excessive caseloads.
The numbers from Dhaka’s courts reveal a total failure of compliance.
Of the 2,038 cases filed across the capital’s 50 police stations between April 2025 and April 2026, 750 remain entirely unresolved. While investigations were completed for the other 1,288 cases, none met the legally mandated deadline. Looking at the first four months of 2026, a mere 9 per cent of newly filed cases have been investigated.
This bottleneck accumulates at the top. High Court data shows that as of 31 December, 2025, there were 1,32,107 cases pending across the nation’s 99 special tribunals.
Dhaka’s nine tribunals alone shoulder 15,469 of those cases. Shockingly, 3,091 of the capital’s cases have been trapped in the system for over five years, directly defying the law that mandates a 90-day resolution for rape trials.
Legal experts weigh in
According to Supreme Court lawyer Khademul Islam, Section 20 of the amended Prevention of Violence against Women and Children Act mandates trials for rape offenses under Section 9 must conclude within 90 working days, while other crimes under the Act must be resolved within 180 working days.
The statute also stipulates that once hearings commence, trials should proceed on a daily basis without interruption.
“However, due to flawed witness procedures, tribunal backlogs, plaintiffs’ reluctance to testify, and weak state prosecution, most cases blow past these limits,” Islam explained.
Md. Kamal Khan, General Secretary of the Dhaka Bar Association, blamed systemic bottlenecks such as frequent defense adjournments, delayed forensic evidence, and an outdated IT infrastructure.
“Many witnesses fail to appear. When they do, a lack of legal preparation means their testimony can inadvertently benefit the accused,” Khan noted. “The problem isn’t a lack of laws; it’s a total failure of implementation.”
Senior Supreme Court lawyer Manzil Morshed provided a harsher critique of the system’s breakdown. “There is no longer a precedent for exemplary, swift punishment to deter these crimes. This accountability disappeared during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure. Today, public faith in the courts has eroded so deeply that citizens bypass the judiciary entirely, appealing directly to the Prime Minister for justice.”
Morshed warned that the country’s tribunals are crippled by a shortage of judges and logistics. “We have seen a severe breakdown in the rule of law over the past 18 months. The government must act immediately to restructure the judiciary through a comprehensive strategic overhaul.”
Rising concern over child safety
Data from human rights group Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) reveals a grim reality: at least 522 children were killed between January 2025 and April 2026, averaging over 32 murders a month. In the same window, 1,223 children endured extreme violence, including rape, a staggering monthly average of 76 incidents.
“These atrocities signal a profound social and moral decline,” warned Professor Dr Farhana Zaman, Chair of Sociology at Jagannath University. “The entire country is experiencing trauma. Direct victims face immediate harm, while the public suffers secondary psychological trauma. This environment cripples healthy childhood development. We must aggressively raise moral standards and demand fast-tracked trials.”
Advocate Nusrat Jahan, Deputy Director of SOS Children’s Villages Bangladesh, noted that child protection remains an afterthought in governance. “Preventing child abuse is a prerequisite for a just state, yet children’s welfare rarely takes priority in policy discussions,” she argued.
Tahmina Rahman, Executive Director of Ain o Salish Kendra, pointed out why the system fails. “Public outrage generates initial momentum, but it quickly evaporates. The slow-moving judiciary simply cannot sustain the pace of public demands for justice.”
Rahman attributed the spike in violence to a complete breakdown of deterrence: “Criminals no longer hesitate because there is an absolute absence of visible justice. If the state had delivered swift verdicts in landmark cases like Asia’s and Tonu’s, it would have sent a warning. Instead, institutional inaction feeds social degradation.”
When contacted by phone for comment on the systemic delays plaguing these cases and the lack of visible justice, Attorney General Ruhul Quddus, the country’s chief law officer, declined to elaborate, stating simply: “I cannot comment on this matter.”
