Preeti’s death: Ashfaqul, wife sent back to jail

A Dhaka court today sent The Daily Star Executive Editor Syed Ashfaqul Haque and his wife Tania Khondoker to jail upon completion of their four-day remand in a case filed over the death of domestic worker Preeti Urang.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury passed the order after Investigation Officer Md Shariful Islam, an inspector of detective branch (DB) of police, produced the couple before the court around 4:00pm, seeking their confinement in jail.

Preeti Urang, 15, from Moulvibazar, died after she fell through an opening on Ashfaqul's eighth-floor flat around 8:00am on February 6.

Police took Ashfaqul and Tania into custody within hours of the incident.

The couple was on a four-day remand in a case filed by the victim's father, a tea garden worker, under section 304(a) of the penal code, which deals with death caused by negligence.

They were first produced before a Dhaka court with a five-day remand petition on February 7, but the court asked the police to interrogate the couple at the jail gate instead and submit a report in three working days.

Police produced the couple before the court again last Monday with a 10-day remand petition, but the court granted four days' remand in police custody.

Preeti's death came around six months after a seven-year-old house help at the same couple's house suffered injuries as she tried to flee through an opening of the eighth-floor flat.

The victim's family filed a case over the incident, but police gave final report as they did not find any evidence to bear out the charges in the case, filed under the Children Act 2013.