What to make of Shahadat’s acquittal?

A court on Sunday acquitted Shahadat Hossain and his wife on charges of torturing a minor girl employed at his house as a maid. The judgement was given by the Judge of the Fifth Tribunal for Prevention of Women and Children Repression of Dhaka, based on the prosecution's failure to prove the charges against the couple. In a surprising turn of events, contrary to her previous claims, the domestic help, Mahfuza Akhtar Happy, in her August 24 statement, said that Shahadat and his wife "did not torture her".

Earlier on September 6 last year, the then 10-year-old Happy was found sitting and crying on a roadside in Dhaka's Pallabi area. According to a police report, "One of her hands had been burnt with a hot cooking spoon, while other injury marks were also found". The young girl at the time said that she had suffered those injuries at the hands of Shahadat and his wife, which naturally drew massive media coverage given our over obsession with celebrities, including sports personalities.

Read More: Shahadat and wife acquitted

But the question is, if Shahadat and his wife did not torture the little girl, then who did? Clearly the pictures are proof enough that she was tortured. And it is the duty of the state, police and other authorities to find out the truth after conducting a thorough investigation which should lead to these questions being answered.

Then there is the fact that the girl was employed at the age of only 10, when the law of the land itself prohibits it. I understand the argument that some people may bring that the girl comes from a poor family which may not be able to provide her with much. And that she may be better off living with people who can provide her with a relatively better future.

But is this the better life that she should get? Is torture the better provision she deserves, away from the safety of her own family? But then again, we see grownups torturing and sometimes killing young children in our country quite often. Sometimes, for no other reason than just a good old laugh.

What the bottom line of this and other similar stories indicates – torture of young children at the hands of grown men and women – is that our society is increasingly becoming a madhouse. A madhouse full of psychopaths who lack all sense of sympathy and empathy which allows them to commit such sadistic acts, that too, against the most innocent among all of humanity — children.

At the same time, what it also shows is a similar trend of decreasing empathy among the general populace also, which permits them to remonstrate against such heinous acts for five seconds only, before moving onto another and most latest celebrity scandal. As far as the victimised children are concerned, often they don't really matter much. Unless, of course, the perpetrator themselves are important enough for it to be a scandal. Where do we go from here? A very dark future of course, unless we quickly wake up to the insanity that we are all contributing to, with our nonchalant attitude towards such grotesque acts.

The writer is a member of the Editorial team, at The Daily Star.