C T Online Desk: Anowara Mahbub, mother of The Daily Star’s former executive editor Syed Ashfaqul Haque, has demanded an unbiased, thorough, impartial, and fair investigation into the death of Preeti Urang, a domestic help at her son’s house, to unveil the truth.
In a media statement on Wednesday, Anowara, wife of late freedom fighter Syed Mahbubul Haque from Magura, also sought justice for her son.
“Finally, I urge the investigators to conduct a fair investigation. I also request all media houses and people from all levels of the society not to spread any misinformation, which may obstruct justice,” she said.
She said she has complete faith in the law of Bangladesh.
Anowara said she made the statement to shed light on an accidental death (according to prosecution death arising out of negligence) and “the unjust media speculation, spread of falsehoods, distortion of facts and far-fetched misinterpretation” during the ongoing investigation of the case.
On February 6, Preeti, an irregular domestic help, fell to her death from the flat of Ashfaque and his wife, Tania Khondoker, located on Shahjahan Road in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur.
The death came as a huge shock for the couple, who were asleep at the time of the accident, and they both surrendered to law, Anowara said.
Ashfaque and Tania have been behind bars for the last 71 days, she said.
Referring to the statement by 117 citizens on April 2, Anowara said issuing such a statement is tantamount to contempt of court because the matter is sub judice.
“The statement condemned what it called the ‘police inaction’ in relation to the case.
“About the so-called police inaction, I would like to say: my son and his wife were taken into police custody within hours of the incident; they were interrogated by police multiple times during their about 28-hour custody at Mohammadpur Police Station before being produced at a court around 2:00pm the next day. The court sent them to jail,” she said.
The couple was subsequently interrogated at jail gates and again interrogated for four days while on police remand.
Later, the case was handed over to the Detective Branch of police. Detectives questioned Ashfaque and Tania in their custody and produced before a court which sent them to jail.
“I wonder what proof the said 117 citizens have in their possession to ascertain that she was hanging from the grill for about 13 minutes,” she said.
It is also not clear on what basis the said statement claimed that the CCTV footage at Ashfaque’s home “went missing”, Anowara said.
Ashfaque and Tania only used a Chinese camera for streaming live video footage from their home to their mobile phones like many other households and businesses do these days, she said.
“Since this was a live camera and no footage was stored on any device or memory cards ever, the question of footage going missing does not arise,” she added.
Regarding the injury from the fall of Ferdausi from Ashfaque’s home in August 2023, the said statement made a number of “fictitious claims”, said Anowara.
“The statement falsely claims that she suffered a ‘3cmX3cmX3cm wounds from deep inside her reproductive organ leading up to the opening of anus’. It is an outrageous claim.”
Doctors at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where Ferdausi was taken after the accident on August 4, 2023, recorded her injury saying: “A lacerated wound from labia minora up to anal sphincter in midline measuring 3cmX2cmX2cm.”
Anyone familiar with the medical term “labia minora” would know that labia minora are two small and thin skin tissues located outside the female reproductive organ, not deep inside it, Anowara said.
