Torturing house helps: 3 sent to jail

Three persons were sent to jail today in a case filed for torturing two minor house helps, who tried to escape torture by their employers in Dhanmondi.

The arrestees were: Golam Kibria, owner of a brick kiln in Noakhali, his wife and daughter.

They were produced before a Dhaka court which sent them to jail, the OC said.

Police detained them yesterday after a minor house help was injured falling from the sixth floor of a 13-storey building while he and another house help were trying to escape torture by their employers, according to police.

Injured Sharif and another house help Swapan -- both 11-year-old -- were trying to escape from the house of Golam Kibria through a small bathroom ventilator. They tried to climb down using a rope, the official said. While doing so, Sharif slipped and fell on the ground and Swapan got stuck on the window sun-shade on the fifth floor, he added quoting witnesses.

Sharif’s father filed a case with Dhanmondi Police Station after the incident, said Abdul Latif, officer-in-charge of the police station.

Kibria, his wife and two children have been living in the apartment for around six years, said Jahidul Islam, manager of the building.

Talking to this correspondent, Sharif, who was undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, alleged that the family members used to keep them confined to the house and often tortured them, beating them up over trivial matters.

Both hailing from Noakhali, Swapan worked at the house for over a year while Sharif started working from this month.

When asked, Kibria’s driver Khairul Islam said the two boys were not allowed to go outside without the family’s permission.