Balurghat, May 5: The father of a gang-rape victim has come out to help a youth wrongly arrested for the crime and is working to get him released from jail.

“I informed police that the arrested youth was not involved in the crime as soon as I heard that he had been picked up, but they did not pay heed to me,” said the father, Kabirul Islam (name changed).

Kabirul said he would offer all help to the lawyer engaged by the youth to ensure that he was released soon. “I want the actual culprits to be arrested.”

Anwar Hossain, 22, was arrested instead of Anwar Ali, 47, on April 1 this year in connection with the gang-rape of Kabirul’s eldest daughter that took place on April 27, 2007.

Kabirul lodged an FIR against Saifur Rehman and eight others, including Anwar Ali, on May 13 last year. He alleged that Rehman had lured away the girl with the promise of marriage before taking her to his house and, along with the others, raping her.

It took some time for the girl to recover from the physical and mental trauma, Kabirul said. It was after she narrated the entire incident that her father lodged the FIR at the Harirampur police station.

The police arrested six of the accused, including Saifur Rehman, but could not track down Anwar Ali and two others. Instead, the search for Anwar Ali, a resident of the Gokarna gram panchayat, led the police to Anwar Hossain, who lives in the adjacent village, Saidpur.

The Gangarampur additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Buniyadpur had rejected Anwar Hossain’s bail plea.

His lawyer, Abdul Khalek Ahmed, said the police committed a blatant mistake. “The fathers of Anwar Ali and Anwar Hossain bear the same name — Sabur Mohammad. While Anwar Ali’s father died long ago, the father of my client is still alive,” the lawyer said. Ahmed added that Anwar Ali’s father, the late Sabur Mohammad, was a one-time CPM gram panchayat member of the area.

“I have now placed a plea before the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Balurghat that Anwar Hossain should be declared innocent and released,” Ahmed said. He added that the court would take up the matter tomorrow.

The case has created ripples in political circles of Harirampur. Some people have alleged that the arrest of Anwar Hossain was “politically motivated”.

The block Congress president, Subhasis Pal, claimed that Anwar Ali was a CPM member and the police picked up the wrong person to allow him to escape.

Rafiqul Islam, a zonal committee member of the CPM, agreed that the wrong person had been arrested. “But I am not ready to concede that it was a conspiracy hatched by my party because both the accused and the innocent are CPM members,” Rafiqul said.

The inspector-in-charge of Harirampur police station said the police would act according to the court’s decision.