Expecting mother, her husband seek PM’s help to save lives

Alleging that the convicts and accused in two cases were issuing threats to them and trying to abduct them, Jesmin Akhter, an expecting mother, on Sunday sought the interference of the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Army chief to save their lives.

Jesmin along with her husband Engineer Dewan Shamsul Huda pleaded for their lives at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity.

Reading out a written statement, Jesmin said her husband bought a flat, No-3/A (3rd floor) at House-423, Road-7, Mirpur DOHS under Pallabi Police Station on September 5, 2016 from its owners Musrat Jahan and her daughter Karisa Musrat paying Tk 1.40 crore in cash after striking an initial (baina) deed. The couple lived there for two years.

Despite pressing repeatedly, the owners were procrastinating in registering the flat in their names, she said, adding that at one stage, Musrat Jahan provided a cheque for Tk 1.40 crore as security. “However, finding no other alternative, my husband lodged a case with a court here under the NI Act,” the woman said, adding that the court on October 2 last year sentenced Musrat Jahan to one year and fined her Tk  1.40 crore.

After the verdict, both Musrat and her daughter drove the couple away from the flat looting their all belongings, including 25 tolas of gold and cash money, she alleged. “Later, I filed another case accusing seven people, including the mother and her daughter, with a court seeking justice,” she said. 

After hearing, the court on May 12 last issued warrants for the arrest of the seven accused but police were showing no interest to arrest them, Jesmin said.

She alleged that her husband was abducted from Indoil bus stand on Naogaon-Bogura Highway in Naogaon by some plain-clothes armed youths in two vehicles on his way to the bus stand on the night of June 9.

But locals caught red-handed few youths with a jeep and handed them over to the local police station while the other vehicle with Shamsul Huda sped away, the woman said, adding that the officer-in-charge of the local police station released the detainees taking bond.

On June 10, she said, the abductors dropped her husband at Kachukhet in the capital after taking his signature on blank papers.

Jesmin alleged that they were now receiving phone calls from unidentified callers threatening them with dire consequences if they do not withdraw the cases. “We have been on the run while the convicts are at large,” she said.

At the press conference, Shamsul Huda narrated how he was abducted and tortured by them before his release.