Police yesterday rescued a juvenile house help, allegedly brutalised by her employer and her employer’s husband over the last ten months, from the capital’s Badda area.
The victim, Jhumur, 16, was admitted to the One-stop Crisis Centre (OCC) of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) yesterday around 2pm. The victim’s mother filed a case against her employer, Farzana Akhter Tania, and her employer’s husband, Maksud Parvez, at Badda police station.
Police were able to arrest Farzana but Maksud fled from their apartment at 22/11, East Merul Badda. Police said Farzana had brought Jhumur to the Cholera Hospital in the capital on Thursday with diarrhoea.
“At the hospital, patients and their attendants noticed the mark of injuries on the girl’s body. She told them the scars were caused by her mistress’s abuse,” said Sub-Inspector (SI) Jamal Hossain of Badda police station.
Some of the patients and their attendants informed journalists, the police and the girl’s mother about the scars.
“We went to the hospital and spoke with her. She provided her employer’s home address,” the SI said.
Police made the arrest early yesterday, recovered the juvenile domestic worker and brought her to DMCH.
SI Jamal said Jhumur, daughter of Hanif Mollah and Nargis Begum of Zianagar in Pirojpur district, started to work in the Badda flat on December 13 last year.
“Farzana and her husband used to torture her. If the child failed at some task, they would beat her with an iron rod or pour hot water on her body,” he said.
Jhumur told police she had been poorly fed. She was given spoiled food to eat. Several times she was beaten up because she stole food to eat. Farzana was admitted to the Cholera Hospital after she fell sick from eating rotten food.
Police yesterday produced Farzana before a Dhaka court seeking a five-day remand. The court scrapped the remand petition and sent her to jail.
Bilkis Begum, coordinator at the OCC, said a preliminary physical examination had been conducted on the rescued house help. “She is suffering from malnutrition. There are also some burn injuries on the body. Perhaps a bone is also broken. We will conduct a detailed examination [today],” she said.
