An 18-year-old girl was rescued by police and a local ward councillor in Barisal city on Tuesday morning after being chained up and beaten for around 11 hours under the open sky overnight allegedly by her boyfriend and his parents who were pressing her to withdraw cases filed against him.
On being treated at a hospital, the girl filed a case under the women and children repression prevention act yesterday against the boyfriend, Shahadat Hossain Mithu, 20, his father Altaf Hossain alias Shanu Haoladar, mother Hosneara Begum and two friends Shamsu Khan and Rafiq Akand.
The mother was denied bail and sent to jail while the others are on the run, said police. Local non-government rights organisations are scheduled to form a human chain today demanding arrest and exemplary punishment of the accused.
The councillor, Firoj Ahmed, quoting the victim and her family, said the textile factory worker had gotten into a relationship three years ago with her neighbour Mithu who resides at Rice Research Institute Road under Ward 24.
Refusing to marry her, Mithu took up a job and started living in Gazipur in February this year. The girl followed him there and they started living together. Police, following complaints by locals, raided their residence on June 2 and got to know from the girl that Mithu had tried to engage her into prostitution, he added.
The girl was handed over to her parents and Mithu was sent to jail with two cases filed against him, one over rape and another over conducting “unsocial activities”, said Firoj.
Getting bail on September 14, Mithu, alongside his parents, asked the girl to come over to their residence on Monday to reach an understanding, he added.
When the girl refused to withdraw the case, they chained her up to a tree and a lamppost on their courtyard and tortured her. None of the passers-by and neighbours came to her assistance during the whole ordeal, he said. Police detained and then questioned five neighbours -- Palash Khan, Shipon Haoladar, Md Ripon, Abdul Huq and Delwar Hossain -- before releasing them.
