National cricket player Shahadat Hossain and his wife Nitto Shahadat are on the run after their 11-year-old domestic help complained of physical abuse in their hands.
The child is now undergoing treatment at One-Stop Crisis Centre (OCC) of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
A Dhaka court directed police yesterday to submit its report about the allegation against the cricketer and his wife by October 12. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Waiyes Kuruni Khan Chowdhury passed the order yesterday after accepting the case.
Shahadat and Nitto went into hiding as soon as they heard about the court accepting the charges against them, said Inspector Shaifqur Rahman of Mirpur Model police. “We found their flat at Mirpur Section 2 locked when we went there.”
A number of police teams are at work to trace their whereabouts, he added.
The case against the couple was filed with the police station by a journalist named Khandakar Mozammel Haque, who found the victim wandering the streets of Pallabi Journalist Colony on Sunday night, her body covered in bruises.
“The child is heavily traumatised by the torture she endured at Shahadat’s flat. She came here with a blackened eye and bruises on her back, hand and a fracture in her leg. He were providing her with both treatment and counselling,” said Dr Bolkis Begum, OCC coordinator.
Before word got out that he and his wife had tortured their 11-year-old domestic help, Shahdat had gone to Mirpur police station to file a general diary after the victim went missing from his residence.
“He came here to file the GD about his missing house help, but for some unknown reason, he mentioned her present address to be in Shahjahanpur, instead of Mirpur where he lives,” said Bhuiyan Mahbub Hossain, OC at Mirpur Model police station.
Bangladesh Shishu Odhikar Forum issued a statement last night condemning the heinous act and demanded exemplary punishment for Shahadat and Nitto.
