ASK to take care of Jessie, her child

Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), a rights organisation, last night took the custody of mentally challenged housewife Ajmeri Supti alias Jessie and her 20-months-old daughter, who were rescued in a state of near death from an apartment in the city's Segunbagicha on Sunday.
Nahid Shams, senior staff lawyer of ASK, told The Daily Star that they would first admit Jessie, 35, to a clinic for her physical recovery and then to a mental hospital. According to a doctor at Dhaka Ahsania Mission Hospital, Jessie might have gone schizophrenic.
The mother and her daughter were taken to Woman Support and Investigation Centre at Tejgaon after Ramna police rescued them. Jessie and her child had remained almost unfed for about a month since her husband went missing.
Jessie's mother, two sisters, and two brother-in-laws met her yesterday at the Support Centre. Jessie, however, denied having recognised Wahida Begum of Raipura, Chandpur as her mother and Amena Begum Beauty and Aklima Akhter Lipi as her sisters.
Shamima Begum, in-charge of the Support Centre and a deputy commissioner of police, said ASK would bear the treatment cost until Jessie recovers, as her mother and sisters are unable to afford the cost and also do not want to take her with them.
“Although Jessie denied, we are sure that Wahida Begum is her mother...as we have seen her childhood photographs, certificates, and other documents”, she said.
Wahida Begum told The Daily Star that Jessie had married Ashraf Guddu of the city's Abul Hasnat Road following a love affair and she did not maintain relations with them.
She said her daughter became a mental patient after her two newborn babies died while a feud over the distribution of the properties of her husband's family intensified the disease.
Mohammad Arshad, elder brother of Jessie's husband, said both his brother and brother's wife are mental patients. "Since Jessie married my brother, she had been saying that her parents stay in America and we never saw any of her relatives in Bangladesh", he said.