A couple in Chandpur have been sent to prison after they were detained for beating their daughter to death in order to prove that they possess supernatural power.
Taslima Sharmin, judge of Chandpur Judicial Magistrate Court 1, ordered to send Emran Hossain, 40, and his wife Amena Begum, 35, to jail after police produced them before her yesterday noon.
Emran Hossain is a carpenter by profession.
Police detained the couple from Meher (north) union of the district’s Shahrasti upazila in connection with the death of their fourth child, Sumaiya, 3.
The child died early in the morning on Tuesday and police recovered the body hours later from the house.
Her death was caused by brutal, indiscriminate beating by her parents for six days.
Police said Amena took out a loan of Tk1 lakh from a local NGO but planned with her husband to make money by working as a kabiraj in order to repay the loan as she defaulted on it.
According to the plan, it was announced in the area that Amena had obtained supernatural power and a baby would not cry even if she beat it up.
In order to make people believe the claim, Amena beat her own daughter up and attempted to practice exorcism on locals. She also began charging people for this.
To help his wife, Emran also beat Sumaiya and continued the torture for six days until the child died.
Locals attempted to save the baby girl from her parents’ torture and even succeeded once on Monday but the couple tortured
her again.
Meher (north) union Chairman Saiful Islam Rony said Emran and Amena did it all just to make people believe that the woman was in possession of supernatural power.
Officer-in-Charge (investigation) of Shahrasti police station Dildar Azad said Amena wanted to earn money as a fake kabiraj but her attempts led to the pathetic death of her own daughter.
“We are still not certain about whether Amena borrowed money from the NGO. After police took the couple to the court, they were acting like crazy and were pretending to have obtained supernatural power.
“We will observe the situation before submitting a remand plea to the court,” he added.
Officer-in-Charge of the police station Mizanur Rahman said a murder case was filed in connection with the death of the child.
“Sumaiya was buried in the family graveyard on Tuesday night after doctors performed an autopsy on her,” he added.