Aduri had a little smile on her face on Thursday as she got to see her mother after a long time, and she heard about the arrest of her alleged torturer. The 11-year-old girl, who was rescued by police on Monday from a city dustbin where she was dumped after apparent torture, was shifted to the One-Stop Crisis Centre of Dhaka Medical College Hospital for better treatment on Thursday.
Bilkis Akter, coordinator of the specialised centre, told the Dhaka Tribune that Aduri was getting nutritious food and medicines and her condition was improving.
In the meantime, members of the Women Support and Investigation department of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested Aduri’s employer, Nowrin Jahan Nadi, from a flat in the city’s Pallabi area.
Nadi, however, denied torturing Aduri, saying she has had no contact with the girl since she ran away two months ago after stealing some money and jewellery.
Aduri, from Joinokathi village in Patuakhali district, is the seventh among nine children. Her father, Khaleq Mridha, who was disabled and unable to work, died three years ago. Her mother, Safia Begum, sells vegetables in the village to earn for the family.
Aduri came to capital around December after her mother handed her over to a neighbour, Chunnu Mridha, who promised to get her a job as a housemaid with a monthly salary of Tk500. Chunnu, a local contractor, had also found work for Aduri’s elder sister, Sonia, 16, three years ago.
On Tuesday, Chunnu informed Aduri’s mother that her daughter had been missing since Sunday, when she was sent to the shops to buy some groceries. However, he refused to give her any contact number for the house where Aduri worked.
On Tuesday night, Safia rushed to Dhaka with her younger sister, Sahina Akter.
Talking to this correspondent at the hospital on Thursday, Safia said they looked for her daughter everywhere on Wednesday, even contacting some relatives of Chunnu in Dhaka to get the address of Aduri’s employer.
Finally, they came to know about Aduri’s whereabouts after one of her uncles, pretending to be a police official, called Chunnu over mobile phone and was told that Aduri was undergoing treatment at the DMCH.
Meanwhile, talking to reporters at the DMP media centre on Thursday, Nadi said she did not inform the police or look for Aduri when she ran away in July, as the girl had left once before, but had returned soon after.
“I made a mistake by not lodging a complaint with police when she ran away this time,” Nadi said.
Nadi said Chunnu was her husband’s brother-in-law. She also claimed that her in-laws were trying to implicate her in the torture case as she has bad relations with them. Nadi’s husband, Saiful Islam Masud, has been in hiding for the past two years following his alleged involvement in a multi-level marketing scam.
DMP Deputy Commissioner Shamima Begum told the Dhaka Tribune that police were investigating the incident, and analysing information collected from the victim and her employer.
“Primarily, we are suspecting that the girl might be a victim of a family dispute,” she said.
Pallabi police, meanwhile, registered a case under a child rights law and were questioning Nadi’s parents and other family members last night.
Abdul Mannan, an assistant sub-inspector of Cantonment police, found Aduri in a dustbin at Baridhara DOHS while he was patrolling the area on Monday. The girl bore cut and burn marks all over her body and could barely move.