Three people have been sent to jail after remand in a murder case filed over the death of 15-year-old house help Mim Akter, whose body was allegedly left outside the emergency department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
On Thursday, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jewel Rana passed the order following an application by the investigation officer. Sub-Inspector (SI) Shah Alam of the prosecution department confirmed the matter on Friday.
SI Shah Alam said: “The 3 accused were produced before the court on Thursday after the remand period ended, and an application was made to keep them in jail. The court later ordered that they be sent to jail.”
He said no bail applications were filed by the accused.
The accused are Faisal Ahmed, 35, head of the household where Mim worked; his wife Rahema Khatun Reshma, 29; and his father-in-law A B M Abdur Razzak, 47.
According to the case documents, Mim had been working at Faisal’s house for about a year. Her family alleged that she had been subjected to physical and mental abuse since she started working there.
After Mim called her family and spoke in a tearful voice about the alleged abuse, her family decided to bring her home.
Police said the accused allegedly took Mim’s body to DMCH on August 12, left it outside the emergency department as an unidentified body and fled.
The following day, Faisal allegedly called Mim’s family and told them that she had stolen money and valuables from the house and fled with another boy.
On August 17, members of Mim’s family went to the accused’s house looking for her but were allegedly abused and driven away.
On August 20, after receiving information about the unidentified body, Mim’s family went to Shahbag Police Station and, with police assistance, identified it at the DMCH morgue.
Police later identified Mim by analyzing technological data and CCTV footage.
Mim was the daughter of Fazlu Mia from the Basudev Bazar area of Comilla. Her mother filed a murder case with Shahbagh Police Station on August 21.
After the incident, the accused allegedly left their longtime residence in the Siddhirganj police station area of Narayanganj and went into hiding in Demra. Police arrested all 3 from Demra’s Bamail area in a raid on the night of August 20.
The following day, the court ordered them to be sent to jail. On August 24, Shahbagh Police Station SI Mahfuza Akter, the investigation officer in the case, sought 7 days of remand for the accused.
The court scheduled the hearing for Monday in the presence of the accused and later granted 3 days of remand.
During Monday’s remand hearing, the defense and their lawyers claimed that the house help had “committed suicide”.