A mentally challenged girl has allegedly been locked up by a Dhaka University (DU) teacher and tortured for over two weeks. Md Monirul Islam, the DU assistant professor of political science, has written to the vice-chancellor to take action against tourism department’s Prof Md Afzal Hossain. The VC has tasked Proctor Prof Golam Rabbani to look into the allegation and take necessary measures.
In his complaint, Monirul said Rima, about 10-year-old girl, had been living at his house for the last four years. She is mentally challenged.
Rima’s father, hailing from Kancher Khol village in Jhenaidah’s Shailkupa Upazila, kept his daughter at the teacher’s house as he was poor. The girl went missing on November 19.
Monirul lodged a general diary with Shahbagh police on the same day. He also made announcements over loudspeakers on the campus, distributed posters and advertised in several newspapers looking for the girl.
He learned on December 6 that Rima was at Prof Afzal’s house. Monirul and history department’s Associate Prof SM Rezaul Karim went to Prof Afzal’s house to get the girl back. But nobody initially answered the doorbell. After a while, Prof Afzal’s elder daughter came and told them that her parents were sick. Monirul and his colleague, who were reluctant to leave, finally entered the house and found the little girl.
The political science teacher said Rimi’s head had been forcefully shaved and she had been locked up for 17 days. “I made announcements over loudspeakers and pasted posters all over the campus but still could not find the girl,” he said. “Did they (Prof Afzal and his family) not hear or see anything? This makes it clear that they had forcefully confined the girl.”
Prof Afzal’s wife claimed their driver had found the girl standing in front of their house. “She could not tell us where she lived but told us that she was from Kancher Khol village, where my father’s house is,” she said. “That’s why we decided to keep the girl at our house. She claimed that they had been searching where the girl lived in Dhaka and was trying to contact her family in the village.
About allegation of forcefully shaving the girl’s hair, she said, “We shaved her head as it was infested with lice.”
DU Proctor Rabbani said they were investigating the incident.