Tied and beaten ‘for some cabbage’
A woman was brutally beaten up by her husband and in-laws allegedly for damaging their cabbage field in Shibganj upazila of Bogura on Friday.
The 40-year-old victim Shilpi Begum’s brother Mamun Hossain filed a case against her husband Rafi and six to seven unnamed people under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act with Shibganj Police Station yesterday.
Mamun told The Daily Star that Rafi and his family members tied Shilpi to a bamboo around 7:30am on Friday and beaten her up publically.
“They [Shilpi’s in-laws] brought a false allegation against my sister that she damaged their cabbage field and beat her up,” he said.
A footage of the incident went viral on social media.
Rafi and Shilpi recently got married and started living at a rented house in Sadar upazila of the district. Rafi, however, refused to contribute to the new family, leaving a burden of due house rent on Shilpi’s shoulder, Mamun said.
Shilpi went to her in-law’s house on Friday morning to fix this issue when Rafi and his family members tortured her, he added.
On information, Shibganj Raynagar Union Parishad Chairman Shahiqul Islam took the woman to the union parishad and handed her over to police.
Sub-inspector Hazizur Rahman of Shibganj Police Station detained the victim and requested Shibganj upazila nirbahi officer Alamgir Kabir to place before a mobile court. The police official took the step without scrutinising the allegation brought against Shilpi. He did not even visit the spot.
Contacted, UNO Alamgir Kabir said he refused to punish the woman via mobile court. Instead, he asked the police official to file a regular case in this connection, he said.
Asked, Sub-inspector Hazizur said he did not visit the spot where Shilpi was beaten as it was far away from the union parishad office where she was kept.
Instead of visiting the crime spot, he relied on the information provided by the UP chairman, he said. However, he denied going to UNO Alamgir.
The Daily Star could not reach Chirman Shahiqul Islam after repeated attempts over phone.
Contacted, Ali Asharaf Bhuiyan, superintendent of Bogura police, said, “We took the case very seriously. If there is any allegation against cops, we will look into those too.”
Meanwhile, police arrested both Rafi and his elder brother Saifur Rahman in this connection.
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