Photo : Collected
Executive Editor of The Daily Star Syed Ashfaqul Haque and his wife Tania Khondoker have been arrested by the police over the death of a teenage domestic servant employed in their home in the capital's Mohammadpur area.
Currently, they are being transferred from Mohammadpur police station to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court (CMM) for further proceedings.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner (Mohammadpur Zone) said that earlier a case was filed against the couple under Penal Code 304A.
Due to rash or negligent acts this penal code section stipulates punishment for causing death, not amounting to culpable homicide, with imprisonment or fines.
Earlier yesterday (6 February), the house help, Preeti Urang (15), fell from the ninth floor and was severely injured. She was sent to the nearby hospital and the on-duty doctor declared her dead.
The body has been kept at the morgue in Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital for post-mortem.
Following the incident, police detained four members of the family and took them to Mohammadpur police station for questioning.
In the case documentation, Lukesh Urang, as the plaintiff, said that Preeti fell from the 8th floor of apartment no. 2/7 in Mohammadpur's Shahjahanpur around 8 am on Tuesday (February 6th) due to the absence of safety bars on the window of the flat's drawing space.
Lukesh attributed these repeated accidents to the negligence and carelessness of the house owner and occupants, emphasizing the lack of protective barriers on the windows as the root cause.
Furthermore, the arrestees failed to provide satisfactory explanations when questioned about the absence of safety bars on their windows and the recurring nature of such accidents.
Besides, on 6 August last year, another domestic worker, Ferdausi, fell from the balcony of Syed Ashfaqul Haque's home and was seriously injured.
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