Employer held for brutalising child

Police yesterday arrested the female employer of a child domestic worker whom locals found unconscious in a severely malnourished state and riddled with injuries and scars near a dustbin in the capital's DOHS Baridhara on Monday.
Nourin Jahan Nodi, a mother of two arrested from her Pallabi residence, denied having tortured 11-year-old Aduri. “She might have been tortured in some other house,” she told journalists at Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Media Centre.
Lying in a bed of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), where locals brought her, Aduri's skeletal body heaved with every breath while her feeble voice paused for long periods during conversations with The Daily Star on Tuesday.
“All over her body there are fresh and healing injury marks inflicted by blades and hot irons and bruises and blood clots inflicted by beatings,” said DMCH One-Stop Crisis Centre (OCC) Coordinator Dr Bilkis Begum.
Mizanur Rahman, quoting his niece Aduri, said, “Nodi used to give her only one meal a day and used to keep her locked in a toilet.”
The girl, daughter of late Khaleque Mridha and fourth among nine siblings, was employed by Nodi around one year ago, he said. Nodi told journalists it was in December 2012.
“Nodi never let Aduri visit her Patuakhali sadar home. She was allowed to call her family only three or four times,” added Mizanur.
He dismissed Nodi's claims that Aduri had fled after Eid-ul Azha with around Tk 5,000 and some gold ornaments. They only came to know from Nodi's relatives on Wednesday that Aduri had gone missing, he said.
Syed Chunnu Mia, a resident of Aduri's village and brother-in-law of Nodi's husband Saiful, a fugitive involved in a multi-level marketing business, had brought Aduri to Dhaka, he added.
Chunnu was detained yesterday and he revealed Nodi's address, said Additional Deputy Commissioner Fatiha Yasmin of DMP's Women Support and Investigation Division.
She said Aduri had stated her torturers to be Nodi and her mother and sister. “We will take legal steps against Nodi.”