8-yr-old sued, sent to jail for drug trade

An eight-year-old girl was sent to the Khulna District Jail yesterday after being sued for carrying twenty bottles of phensidyl.
The arrestee was identified as Arifa, daughter of Rajabuddin of Lobatkati village in Satkhira, and a student of class three.
Police held Arifa and drug peddler Ripon on Sunday while they were on their way to the Jailkhana ferryghat by rickshaw with twenty bottles of Phensidyle brought from Bhomra border of Satkhira. The law enforcers seized the bottles from Arifa who strapped those to her legs and waist.
During questioning at Khulna Police Station, she told the police that she had earlier carried phensidyl to Khulna from Satkhira by bus thrice in the last two months.
She said taking advantage of the poor financial condition of her father, drug peddler Ripon used her for carrying phensidyl. In exchange, her father would get Tk 200 each time from Ripon.
Arifa requested the law enforcers to release her, saying that she had been compelled to carry the bottles.
But the policemen produced her before a court that sent her to jail yesterday.
Sub-inspector Ashim Kumar Das of Detective Branch of Khulna Metropolitan Police filed a first information report (FIR) against the two arrestees.