A Dhaka court yesterday rejected bail petitions of Nayem Ashraf alias Halim and Shadman Sakif, who are accused in the Banani rape case.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mazham I Haque passed the order after their lawyers moved petitions.

Three other accused - Ahmed Shafat, son of Dildar Ahmed Selim, one of the owners of Apan Jewellers, Shafat's driver Billal Hossain and his body guard Rahmat alias Azad - were earlier arrested and they are now in jail.

Of them, Ahmed Shafat, and his friend Nayem Ashraf confessed to raping two university students.

The victims' friend Shadman Sakif, who introduced them to Shafat, also admitted his involvement in the rapes.

Shafat's driver Billal Hossain confessed that he filmed one of the victims' male friends being forced by Shafat and Nayem to pose with yaba tablets.

Invited to Shafat's birthday party on March 28, the two girls went to the hotel around 9:00pm. After the party ended around midnight, Shafat and Nayem raped them in two rooms, one of the victims said in a case she filed with Banani Police Station on May 6.

The alleged rapes in The Raintree Dhaka hotel on March 28, which was reported over a month afterwards, sparked widespread protests on the streets and on social media amid allegations of negligence in dealing with the case by Banani Police.

Meanwhile, doctors at the Forensic Department of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) said they found no evidence of rape after examining the bodies of the two private university girls reportedly raped at the hotel two months ago.

Dr Sohel Mahmud, the chief of the DMCH forensic department, said any rape victim needs to be examined within 72 hours of the incident.