4 ‘Adamya Bangladesh’ officials get bail

A Dhaka court today granted bail to four “Adamya Bangladesh” officials in a case filed under the Human Trafficking Act.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Yusuf Hossain passed the order after the investigation officer of the case submitted a probe report clearing them of the charges.

In the probe report, the investigation officer said the charges brought against them were not proved authentic.

Factual errors were found during the investigation and so an appeal was submitted before the court to clear them of the charges, the report said.

They walked out of the Dhaka Central Jail around 4:30pm, Shakil, one of the NGO members, told The Daily Star.

On September 12, 10 children were "rescued” from a flat in the capital's Banasree area and four people were detained from there.

The arrestees claimed that they were officials of an NGO “Adamya Bangladesh” which gives shelter to street children in the house.

On September 13, nine children, out of 10, were sent to the Juvenile Development Centre in Gazipur while another was handed over to his family.

Police said the children were sent to the shelter home following a Dhaka court order as their guardians could not be contacted or identified immediately.

The court yesterday also put their four "captors"--Arifur Rahman, 24, Hasibul Hasan Sabuj, 19,  Zakia Sultana, 22, and Feroz Alam Khan Shuvo, 21, -- on a two-day remand each in a case filed by one Monir, uncle of one of the children, under the human trafficking act.

The NGO has been paying Tk 17,000 as rent for the last 10 months.

After the incident, The Daily Star correspondent talked to the children who said that they had been staying in the flat for at least six months.

They were treated well and no one even tortured them, the children added.