Orphan tortured by employer on theft charge

Police on Monday detained two people in connection with a case for torturing a boy, tying him to an electric pole, on theft charge on Saturday.

The law enforcers arrested Rashed, a leather shop owner in Laxmipur municipality area, and one of his accomplices from Banchhanagar area the district town on Monday evening, Officer in Charge of Sadar Police Station AKM Azizur Rahman said.

Earlier on Saturday, the 12-year-old victim, Nirab Hossain, son of late Kiran Hossain of the municipality area, was accused by his employer Rashed on theft charge.

Later, Rashed and his men tortured the orphan boy inhumanly by tying him to an electric pole. They also placed a garland of shoes around his neck.

Nirab, however, denied the allegation of theft and said he had secretly taken the amount equal to his wages as the owner wasn’t paying his dues.

A video clip showing the boy being tortured inhumanly went viral on Facebook, causing a huge public outcry across the country.

Locals said, since losing both his parents, Nirab was being brought up by his maternal grandmother and the boy used to work at Rashed’s shop to make ends meet.

On Saturday afternoon, Rashed accused Nirab of stealing and the former along with his two accomplices tied the minor boy to a nearby electric pole and beat him mercilessly.

They also placed the garland of shoes around Nirab’s neck and made him walk through the locality before handing him over to Sadar Police Station.

But moments later, they took the boy back from the police station and arranged an arbitration meeting with village elders on Sunday to settle the issue.

The arbitrators, whose motives were not clear, found the boy guilty and fined him Tk 30,000.

Obviously unable to do so, when his grandmother refused to pay the fine they started torturing the boy again.

Eventually he was rescued by police and admitted to Laxmipur Sadar Hospital.

Contacted, Rashed said they boy stole money from his shop and the arbitration found him guilty.

OC said a case was filed over the incident.