Tourist cop held after beating wife on street

A tourist police constable beat his wife in broad daylight on the streets in the capital's Green Road on Saturday. As the woman screamed for help, the constable told onlookers that she was mad.

The woman, however, tried to grab the legs of the passersby, pleading “Please save me, I am not mad.”

As a video clip of the incident went viral on Facebook, a case was filed against the constable Ruhul Amin, 30, working for the tourist police.

“We have shown Ruhul arrested in the case filed by his wife Nilima Sultana, 24, over torturing her,” said Yasin Arafat, officer-in-charge of Kalabagan Police Station.

Earlier, a team of Kalabagan police detained Ruhul from in front of Central Hospital around 3.00pm on Saturday after getting phone calls from locals about the torture incident, said police.

Selim Reza, owner of Central Pharma Medicine shop, said the woman came in front of his shop 'shouting for help' and two men were also seen chasing after her. One of them identified himself as her husband and the other one as her father-in-law. They started slapping the woman, he said. As onlookers began to congregate around them, one man, identifying himself as a police officer, said, “This is their family matter, don't try to come close.”

Talking to this correspondent at Kalabagan Police Station, victim Nilima said they got married back in 2012 but separated within two years as Ruhul used to viciously torture her and demand dowry. Ruhul had soon asked for a divorce.

Nilima had filed a case on December, 2014 against her husband and brother-in-law for torture and divorce. Both of them were arrested and sent to jail.

Later, the family settled the issue after holding meetings between the families and with Ruhul promising he would not torture Nilima anymore. Then Nilima withdrew the case and they got married again after two months.

Ruhul, however, never corrected himself and continued beating and torturing Nilima over the last three years, during his postings at different districts of the country, claimed Nilima's family.

His tortures grew in frequency and proportion as revenge for sending him and his brother to jail, Tania claimed, adding that Ruhul had also forced her to have two abortions.

In face of this continuous torture, Nilima left Ruhul's house on 11 May this year and took shelter in her parent's house in Belabo of Narsingdi.

One day, Ruhul, along with his father and some other people, forcibly took Nilima away while she went to a nearby market in Belabo to buy an Eid dress just a day before Eid-ul-Fitr, claimed Nilima.

Nilima was tied in iron chains and confined to her room which was also locked from the outside.

Nilima's sister Tania Akther Hanufa, said they tried to bring her sister back from Ruhul's house but Ruhul's family kicked them out after beating them up. “We also tried to take the local police's help but Ruhul managed to convince them that Nilima was mad and had to be confined for everyone's safety,” said Tania. Tania added that the police did not even ask for any evidence of Nilima's mental health and blindly-believed Ruhul's claims. They further did not take any action for the fact that Tania and her family members were assaulted by Ruhul.  On Saturday, Nilima was brought to Dhaka by a microbus.

Ruhul, while bringing her to Dhaka, allegedly discussed how they would prove Nilima to be mentally-ill by taking a certificate from any private mental health clinic.

This correspondent managed to talk to Ruhul in police custody. He refuted the allegation of torture and said Nilima was mentally ill. When queried on the many injury marks on her body, Rahul claimed they were the result of an accident.

Ruhul, however, was not able to tell when the accident actually took place.