Cricketer Shahadat Hossain and his wife Jasmine Jahan broke a leg and a finger of their 11-year-old domestic help, Mahfuza Akhtar. They compelled the child to sleep in the washroom so that she couldn’t run away despite torture.
The tortured girl narrated her sufferings to Prothom Alo on Friday. She gave details of the matter to Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Snigdha Rani Chakraborty in a statement on 21 September.
The child is undergoing treatment at the one-stop crisis centre of Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Centre coordinator Bilkis Begum said the shin bone and a finger of Mahfuza’s left hand were broken. There were injury marks on her back, hands, legs and face. The bruises around her eyes were severe.
Mahufuza told Prothom Alo that she joined work at the house of cricketer Shahadat last year. Initially Shahadat and his wife used to rebuke her for mistakes in work. Later, they began to slap and punch her. One of them held her tightly while the other one beat her with stick or a rolling pin.
In the statement before the judge, the child said, “At least 4-5 wooden lentil mixers were broken beating me. Several spoons and rollers were broken on me. Shahadat’s wife used to sear my knees with a hot flat utensil.”
On 6 September, the girl managed to flee the house and told neighbours about the torture. Khandokar Mozammel Haque, a journalist, filed a case with Mirpur Model police station against Shahadat and his wife. Of late, the police have been granted permission to take Shahadat into remand and his wife is jailed in connection with the case.
Mahfuza told Prothom Alo, “Shahadat used to throttle me so tightly that my sight blurred, and I was near death. His wife also did so. I still bear the bruises on my throat.”
She said, “For a whole year, they would make me sleep in the bathroom at night, locking me up in case I ran away.”
Several days ago I went to Shahadat’s village home with the family. I complained to his mother about the torture. She asked them not to torture me. Enraged at the complaint, the wife beat me in the car while returning. She and Shahadat kicked me.”
National Women Lawyers Association member Fahmida Akhtar is giving the child legal support. She said, “The child was tortured horribly by the couple”.
The defence lawyer Kazi Nazibullah said, undeniably the girl was tortured, but Shahdat was not involved.