In a chilling display of power overriding justice, Atandra Ripaโthe woman who accused Professor Ali Riaz, Special Assistant to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, of rape under false promise of marriage and forced abortionโwas arrested within days of releasing a tearful video testimony. The alleged rapist remains untouched.
Sources close to the case confirm that Dilruba Sharmin, a close associate of Professor Riaz, has privately admitted to escorting the victim to Gonoshasthya Hospital in Dhanmondi, where the abortion was allegedly carried out under duress and political threats.
Ripaโs video statement, now viral with millions of views, details how the relationship began in 2023 through Facebook and poetry discussions.
โHe lied that he had a vasectomy, so protection was not needed. I trusted him,โ she said, sobbing. When pregnancy was confirmed, Riaz allegedly vanished.
A poet, Ripa, says that she was later coerced into terminating the pregnancy with warnings that โAli Riaz would be in dangerโ if she spoke out.
Instead of investigation, police pressure mounted. Ripa went into hiding wearing a burqa, posting desperate pleas: โThey are threatening to disappear me.โ
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Her worst fears materialisedโshe was arrested; Professor Riaz was not even questioned.
2018 #MeToo Allegation Resurfaces
This is not the first time Ali Riaz has faced such accusations.
In December 2018, Canada-based former Dhaka University student Samiha Tutli publicly accused Riaz of attempted sexual assault during a visit to Rajshahi. She described how the โdistinguished professorโ she admired as a poet turned predatory the moment they met in private. Tutli fled in terror.
Riaz denied ever knowing her or staying anywhere except a hotel, producing witnesses who backed his version. No investigation followed then either.
From Bedroom to Constitution: The Real Danger of Untouchable Power
Professor Ali Riaz is no ordinary academic. As Vice-Chairman of the National Consensus Commission and head of the Constitution Reform Commission, he wields unprecedented influence over Bangladeshโs political future. Criticsโincluding senior journalists, freedom fighters, and major political partiesโnow openly brand him a โdeep state agentโ executing foreign-prescribed designs to:
– Rewrite the 1972 Constitution and dilute its secular foundation
– Normalise anti-liberation forces and downplay the 1971 genocide in official narratives
– Push the controversial July Charter while ignoring dissent from BNP, Jamaat, and others
– Create deliberate divisions that threaten post-2024 national unity
Senior journalist Masood Kamal warns: โAli Riaz has messed up everything. His project is to impose a new constitution that sidelines the spirit of 1971. This man was never known as a constitutional expertโyet he controls our destiny.โ
When the Rapist Allegedly Sits at the Heart of Power
Netizens are enraged, with one Facebook user saying: โFirst they silence victims with threats, then jail them, while the perpetrator drafts the nationโs future. This is the real face of the Yunus regimeโs justice.โ
As Bangladesh hurtles toward elections and constitutional upheaval, one question burns brighter than ever: If a woman can be jailed for accusing the second-most powerful man in the interim government of rape, what hope remains for the rule of lawโor for the millions who believed August 2024 heralded a new era of accountability?
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