A Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against former national cricketer Shahadat Hossain and his wife Jesmine Jahan Nitto in a case filed against the couple for allegedly torturing their 11-year-old domestic help.
Judge Tanjina Ismail of Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal 5 fixed March 20 for recording deposition of witnesses in the case.
The couple, currently on bail, pleaded not guilty after the prosecution read out the charges brought against them.
On February 4, the same court accepted the charge sheet against the couple and scheduled the hearing for charge farming yesterday.
The charge sheet was submitted on December 29 last year by Mirpur Model police station OC Md Shafiqur Rahman, who is also the investigation officer of the case.
Shahadat was sent to jail by a Dhaka court after he surrendered before the court on October 6, two days after police arrested his wife Nitto.
Later, Shahadat secured bail from the High Court on December 8 on the grounds of health issues, while Nitto was granted bail by a Dhaka court on December 1.
According to the case, on September 6 last year, a journalist named Khandkar Mozammel Haque found the victim, who used to work as a housemaid at Shahadat’s residence, on a road in Sangbadik Colony at Pallabi in the capital.
The child was covered in bruises and said she had escaped her employers’ residence unable to endure their beatings and torture anymore.
Later, Mozammel took the victim to police and filed the case against the couple with Mirpur Model police station under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000.
On September 20, the victim gave judicial statement before Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Rani Chakraborty on how she was abused by the cricketer and his wife.
Following the case, Shahadat was suspended from all forms of cricket by Bangladesh Cricket Board on September 13.
