The Covid-19 pandemic has hit hard people in terms of earning their livelihoods and thus caused an economic crisis for many, especially for tenants who are bound to pay the rent to landlords.
And, upon failing to do so, many incidents of tenants being tortured have emerged to the media while the latest incident has been added to the list.
A 40-year-old tenant has allegedly been beaten to death by his landlord in Bandar upazila of Narayanganj as he failed to pay Tk3,000 to clear the rent.
The incident took place in the Prodhan Bari area on Friday.
A fish trader by profession, the victim is Md Foyez, a resident of Char Bolaki village under Gazaria upazila in Munshiganj.
Meanwhile, police arrested Umme Kulsum, the landlord, and her tenant Mohiuddin and his wife Shirina Begum in connection with the murder.
Md Sohel, a relative of the victim, said Foyez had been living along with his wife and their two children at the house of Kulsum for several years.
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As the coronavirus pandemic caused an economic crisis, he could not pay the rent timely for the last seven months and the due stood at Tk7,000.
The landlord created pressure on Foyez for the amount on Thursday night when he only could pay Tk4,000. They also had an argument over the remaining Tk3,000.
On Friday morning, the landlord along with Mohiuddin and his wife Shirina insulted Foyez, who was also a cardiac patient, and threatened to evict him from the house if he failed to pay the due amount at the moment.
At one stage, all of them engaged in a brawl when the trio beat up Foyez indiscriminately and knocked him unconscious.
Hearing the call for help from Rozina Begum, wife of Foyez, locals rushed to rescue him.
Immediately, Foyez was taken to Narayanganj General Hospital where the on-duty physician declared him dead, Sohel added.
The body was sent to the hospital morgue for autopsy.
Also Read - Landlords evict students, throw away belongings amid pandemic
Confirming the incident, Bandar police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Fakhruddin Bhuiyan said the victim's wife filed a murder case in this connection at night.
In May, police arrested a landlord and his nephew on charges of beating up a tenant in Hosni Dalan area of old Dhaka's Chawkbazar as he could not pay up rent due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
In July, as many as 130 students of a private university in Rajabazar area were evicted from Alif Hostel in the locality with their belongings piled up in the garage.
Similar incident of evicting nine students took place in Dhanmondi area.
