Preeti’s death: Case handed over to DB

The case over Preeti Urang's death from a fall from the Mohammadpur flat of The Daily Star Executive Editor Syed Ashfaqul Haque was handed over to the Detective Branch of police yesterday.

"The case has been transferred to us for investigation," Mohammad Ashraful Islam, deputy commissioner of DB's Tejgaon division, told The Daily Star last night.

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

Shortly afterwards, police took Ashfaqul and his wife Tania Khondoker into custody.

The couple is currently 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. The remand ends on Saturday.

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 on Monday with a 10-day remand petition, but the court granted four days' remand in police custody.

Preeti's death comes about six months after a six-year-old house help at the same couple's house suffered injuries as she tried to flee through an opening at 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 child repression act .