Missing girl found after 7 years
She was around 11-year-old when she first came to Dhaka in 2012 to work as a domestic help from Dinajpur.
On September 27, 2013, Khushi Ara Akter suddenly go out from her employer house no 91 of Block-B of Gulshan without informing anyone.
She had been missing since then.
Seven years after the incident, a Gulshan police team finally managed to rescue Khushi from a house in the capital's Karail slum last Wednesday, Sudip Chakrabarty, deputy commissioner of Gulshan Division Police told The Daly Star.
Khushi, now 19-year-old, is now waiting at a victim support centre in Rajshahi to meet with her parents, said the deputy commissioner.
"We have been experiencing unbearable pain for the past seven years. We are very relieved the girl can finally be returned to her parents," said Masuduzzaman Sarker, Khushi's employer and a businessman.
THE INVESTIGATION
On September 28, 2013, a day after Khushi went missing, Masuduzzaman filed a general diary with Gulshan Police Station. He also searched for her in different areas of Dhaka and published missing reports on different national media platforms, according to police and the employer.
But Khushi's father Azizur Rahman, a day labourer, issued a complaint against Masuduzzaman, his wife Shawkat Ara Sheuli, his brother Sayed Ali Shah and their driver Khogendra Nath Roy with Dinajpur court.
The court ordered local police to register the complaint as a case on May 5, 2014 and submit a report. A month after an investigation, local police submitted a final report that said the girl went missing, said District Commissioner Sudip Chakrabarty.
But the plaintiff Aziz filed a no-confident petition against the final report with court and the case investigation charge was handed over to the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI).
The PBI also submitted a final report with the court after investigation, and the plaintiff again issued a no-confident petition. The court then handed over the investigation to the Criminal Investigation Department. The CID had been investigating the case for the past seven years.
After the rescue, Khushi informed police that she forgot her way back after she left the house seven years ago. Monowara Begum, a cleaner of Gulshan-1 DCC market, had found her on the street crying, said DC Sudip.
As Khushi couldn't give any specific information to Monowara, she took the girl home and raised her for the last seven years, he said.
Anwar Hossain Khan, sub-inspector of Gulshan police, who rescued the girl, said Khushi recently told Monowara that she was able to identify the house where she worked.
On June 29, Khushi was searching the area to locate her employer's house. When she was about to return to the slum after no luck, a security guard of the house identified her and informed Masuduzzaman, said SI Anwar.
Masud then submitted an application to Gulshan police, after which Khushi was rescued.
Investigation Officer and CID Sub-Inspector Jabirul Islam produced Khushi in front of Dinajpur court on Thursday. But her parents were missing and the court then ordered to keep the girl in a victim support centre, said police.
SI Anwar said the victim's father allegedly made a settlement with Masud after not getting any trace of his daughter for the last seven years and also took some money.
When Aziz learned about Khushi, he went into hiding, claimed SI Anwar, adding, "We are suspecting that he is hiding in fear of the settlement and returning the money [he took from Masud]."
Police is now looking for Aziz to hand over Khushi to her family, he added.