Rescued from hospital after six weeks of captivity
Parveen Akter
Police on Wednesday evening arrested two directors and two staff of Bangabandhu Memorial Hospital at Mahiganj in Rangpur town on charge of confining a woman to a hospital room for one and a half months for failure to make full payment of her treatment bill. Earlier the same evening, Rangpur Deputy Commissioner BM Enamul Hoque with help of police rescued the victim, Parveen Akter, wife of Shaheen of Kandirhat Pathokshikor village under Pirgachha upazila, from the hospital. On May 29, Shaheen and Parveen, both garment workers in Dhaka, were going to their Pathokshikor home. While getting down from a bus at Modern point in Rangpur, Parveen fell to the ground and received injuries to her uterus. Her husband took her to Bangabandhu Memorial Hospital where Dr Jaharatun Ferdous Kona, a gynaecologist, operated upon her after examination. Eight days later, Zahidul Islam, director of the hospital, told Shaheen that they would have to pay Tk 30,000 as treatment cost, Parveen said. Shaheen told the director that he had to go to home to manage the money. "After going home, my husband sent my mother Parul Begum with Tk 4000 to the hospital. My mother requested Zahidul Islam to take Tk 4000 and release me. Zahid took the money and asked my mother to bring rest of the amount to get me released from hospital," Parveen said. Parul Begum went to her home at Matidaly in Bogra district. She over phone several times requested Zahid to release her daughter but to no effect. "The hospital management did not give me meals twice a day, snatched my mobile phone and created pressure on me to do unsocial activities. As I did not agree, they gave me death threat,” Parveen told journalists at the police station after her rescue from captivity at the hospital on Wednesday evening. Parveen lodged a case in this connection and police arrested hospital directors Jahidul Islam and Khairul Islam, manager Al Helal and nurse Modina Begum on charge of confining the woman unlawfully, said the officer-in-charge of Kotwali Police Station.
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