'Torture pushes' domestic help to suicide

A domestic help has committed suicide after being tortured reportedly by her employer in Dhanmondi area of Dhaka. 

Ratna, 20, set herself on fire by pouring kerosene on her body on Tuesday around 12:30pm at the residence of a businessman in Dhanmondi, where she had been working as a domestic help for the last seven months, police said.

She succumbed to her injuries a few hours after she was taken to a hospital in Mohammadpur.

Before her last breaths, she could inform the doctors of the torture she faced at the hands of the housewife Sultana Munni that led her to take the fatal decision, Parvez Islam, officer-in-charge (investigation) of Dhanmondi Police Station, told The Daily Star.

Ratna's father Jahangir Alam, from Lakshmipur, filed a suicide provocation case against Munni with the Dhanmondi Police Station yesterday.

Subsequently, police arrested Munni, the sole accused of the case. She will be sent to court tomorrow, the police official added.