'Man behind' the suicide of father, daughter still at large

Five days have gone by but police are yet to arrest the man who allegedly provoked a father to commit suicide along with his seven-year-old daughter in Gazipur.

Hazrat Ali, along with his adopted daughter Ayesha Akhter, jumped before a running train in Gazipur apparently out of frustration at not getting justice over sexual abuse of the minor girl.

The alleged abuser, Faruk Hossain from Gazipur's Shreepur upazila, is still at large.

Police, however, detained a person named Shaheed Ullah, son of Nasir Uddin, yesterday morning. He was freed around 16 hours later, as Hazrat's wife Halima Begum told police that the man had nothing to do with the incident.

 Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge (investigation) of Sreepur Police Station, said Shaheed was released around 9:00pm.

Hazrat along with Ayesha committed suicide near Sreepur Railway Station on April 29, as the 55-year-old man got extremely depressed for not getting any response from the authorities to his repeated complaints about attempts to violate the minor girl.

Later, Halima filed a case against seven people, including Faruk and his brother Shahid, for provoking her husband to commit suicide.

Talking to this correspondent yesterday, she said, “Police arrested the wrong person.”

She said Shahid, son of Momtaj Uddin from Karnapur village, is one of the seven accused in the case, not the detained Shaheed, son of Nasir Uddin.

Shaheed works as an electrician in Shreepur Bazar.

Earlier, police arrested Abul Hossain, member of Goshinga Union Parishad, who was accused of not taking any steps despite getting complaints from the couple against Faruk. Abul was placed on a two-day remand on Tuesday.

Halima alleged that four months ago, Faruk took her daughter on his bicycle for a ride to her house. But he instead took her to a jungle and tried to violate her. As Ayesha screamed, Faruk ran away leaving the bicycle that fell on one of her legs, injuring her.

Meanwhile, a four-member committee led by Additional Deputy Inspector General (Dhaka range) of police Mohammad Ali was formed yesterday to investigate the matter.

The probe committee talked to Halima for around two hours and recorded her statement.

“We have been asked to submit a report within seven working days,” said Mohammad Ali.

Policemen were deployed at Halima's house for ensuring her security, he added.

Shankar Saran Saha, deputy director of Social Welfare Department, told this newspaper yesterday that Halima was given three months' widow allowance in advance.

Visiting Halima's house on Monday, National Human Rights Commission Chairman Kazi Reazul Hoque said frustration, resentment and shame had pushed Hazrat into committing suicide along with his daughter.

[Our Gazipur correspondent contributed to this report]