Around 200 locals in Kazipara in the early hours of yesterday blocked roads, demanding immediate arrest of those who threw a housemaid off the roof of an 11-storey building on Sunday morning.
Protests continued till 11am yesterday before law enforcers dispersed them. At noon, the protesters came to Kafrul Police station after her body was taken there from Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Protesters later went to the NAM Garden government officials’ staff quarters at 12:58pm. They blocked the road in front of the complex and demanded the arrest of the alleged killers.
Within 10 minutes, some people under the lead of a man in a red T-shirt, started persuading people that they should bury the girl in a religious manner, and said the case the protesters wanted had already been filed.
The man and his associates however refused to provide their names and said only they were locals.
Meanwhile Usman Goni, the father of the 15-year-old housemaid, Jonia, was taken to the police station by some of the protesters, saying the case would be filed only after he signed it. At 1:45pm police dispersed them, and after a while the remaining protestors took the body to Shewrapara graveyard where Joni was buried around 4pm.
Police delayed taking the case until around 3:20pm, as the supplementary of the unnatural death (UD) case had been filed the previous day. Usman had accused Jonia's employer Ahsan Habib, Habib’s wife Naznin Akhter and their son Rummon Bin Ahsan for the death of his daughter. Ahsan is the chairman and director of the National Freedom Fighters’ Council.
Usman alleges his daughter was raped before being killed by Rummon and demanded his arrest. He said as Ahsan Habib was trying to save his son, both he and his wife should be accused in the case.
He said: “Jonia was working for Ahsan Habib for some days, as her mother Phul Banu's replacement, but she was raped and murdered by Rummon, Ahsan’s son.”
Usman alleged the government official was spreading his influence to bring the case in their favour.
Police could have easily informed the victim’s family and reporters and said a case had already been filed by the father of the deceased, and that further complaints would be considered as supplementary, and the UD case would automatically be turned into a murder case, sources said.
DMP Deputy Commissioner (Mirpur Zone) Kaimuzzaman said they would not spare anyone found guilty, despite their identity and status.
Police sources said they had already arrested four people – building caretaker Siddiqur Rahman, 50, Imdadul Haque, 30, lift supervisor Riyasadul Haque, 28, and Sohel Rana, 24 – and taken them under two-day remand.
