A woman was dragged away from half-eaten lunch and out of her house to be brutally beaten in broad daylight by a village chief in Gazipur because she did not respond to his summon.
The incident took place on Monday afternoon at Chhoto Latifpur village in the district’s Kaliakair upazila. The victim, Josna Akhtar’s son Noyon Ahmed filed a case against the culprit Jalal Uddin Ahmed and his cohorts, her brother and neighbour Hossain Khan and her sister Zaheda Begum in this regard with Kaliakair police station on Monday night.
In the case statement, Noyon quoted her mother as saying Jalal had been harassing her and giving her vulgar proposals for a while.
On the day of the incident, Jalal summoned Josna to his house. Alone in the house – her husband Bulbul Miah was at work, Noyon at barber’s shop and her other son Hridoy Ahmed at school – she did not respond and immediately informed Noyon about it.
When Noyon reached home, he saw Jalal dragging his mother outside their house. Jalal started beating her in the courtyard while people watched; as Noyon tried to help his mother, her siblings Hossain and Zaheda held him back.
At one point, Jalal started beating Josna with a stick supplied by her brother, shortly after which she lost consciousness.
Later, Noyon took her to Kaliakair Upazila Health Complex, where she received treatment before being released yesterday morning.
“There are several wounds and bruises all over her body,” said Dr Pabitra Kumar, the doctor on-duty at the health complex’s emergency unit.
When contacted, Jalal admitted to torturing Josna, but said he had performed his duty as the chief of the village.
“Josna is a troublemaker in the locality. Her brother complained to me over a family dispute, so I summoned her to resolve the feud.”
When asked if he knew that it was illegal to beat a woman, he said he did, but beat Josna anyway as the leader of the community. He also refuted her claim of harassing her.
However, since he heard about the case, Jalal along with the other accused went into hiding, said Omar Faruk, OC at the police station.
“The search for the accused is in progress,” he said.
