Local people rallied against the alleged killing of a domestic help at the residence of a senior government official in the city’s Mirpur area yesterday. The demonstrators, along with family members, charged the bureaucrat’s son with raping Zania Begum and throwing her from the rooftop on Sunday morning.
According to eyewitness, agitated local people first took out the procession and barricaded the street from 10 am to 11 am, and later took out a rally along with the body of the victim.
Ful Banu, mother of the deceased, said she herself worked at the flat on the NAM Garden in Mirpur where Joint Secretary Ahsan Habib, who is the head of Jatiya Muktijodda Council, lives with his family. “As I had been ill for the last few days, I sent Zania to work there instead of me,” she added.
On Sunday, Zania left for the flat to work, but around10:30 am, police informed that her daughter had fallen from the rooftop at NAM Garden, she stated. “When I went to the flat, I saw that she bore several injuries on her body,” she recounted. She alleged that Jummon, son of the government officer, raped and then killed her. She said that the police did not record her case against Ahshan Habib, his son and wife.   Police brought the body to the Kafrul Police Station and sent it to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy, after which it was handed over to family members on Monday. Later, the agitating crowd put a barricade on the Begum Rokeya Sworoni from 10 Golchottor to Kazi Para area. Relatives of the victims tried to get into NAM Garden with the body, but were not allowed entry by security guards. They then went to the Kafrul Police Station carrying the body and brought out a procession. As the officials assured to take necessary legal steps, they lifted the barricade.
Inspector Aslam Uddin, officer-in-charge (Investigation) of Kafrul Police Station said, “We recorded a case of Unusual Death (UD) on the complaint of the victim’s father Osman Goni.” When asked why he did not record a case of murder and rape, he avoided an answer.