Woman held over torturing 12-yr-old house help to death

Police arrested a housewife from the capital’s Mohammadpur area yesterday, for allegedly torturing a 12-year-old domestic help to death.

Roksana Parvin, 38, was arrested after the deceased Jannati Akter’s father Janu Mollah filed a murder case, said GG Biswas, officer-in-charge of Mohammadpur Police Station.

Police is now looking for Roksana’s husband Sayed Ahmed, an engineer of Water Development Board, who went into hiding after the case was filed, he said.

On Wednesday around 12:30am, the employer took Jannati to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital (SSMCH) in an unconscious state. Jannati had been working for Roksana for the last three years.

Doctors declared her dead on arrival and informed police, said the OC, adding, “We found injury marks on the the victim’s body while conducting the inquest report.”

Police later informed victim’s relatives and sent the body to the morgue for autopsy.

Professor Selim Reza, head of forensic department of SSMC, conducted the autopsy yesterday.

After autopsy, Prof Selim told The Daily Star that they found injury marks on victim’s body and they are suspecting that she might have died from internal bleeding.

Victim’s father Janu Mollah, an auto-rickshaw driver, said that Jannati started working for the family when Sayed Ahmed was posted in Bogura.

On Tuesday morning, he received a phone call from Jannati’s employers, saying that his daughter was unwell and if he wanted to see her, he should come to Dhaka immediately, said Janu Mollah.

Jannati’s employers have a seven-year-old son and they have two other domestic workers, said OC Biswas. “We are interrogating them,” he said.