Village chief in Gazipur beats up housewife

A village chief in Gazipur’s Kaliakoir Upazila has dragged a housewife by her hair and beaten her up in public.

Local police said that a case has been lodged over the assault on Monday, but no one has been nabbed so far.
 
The housewife’s family claims that there was an attempt to ‘molest’ her, but Latifpur Village chief Jalal Uddin denies the allegation.
 
“I know it’s a crime to beat another man’s wife. But I performed the duty as a village chief,” he told bdnews24.com.
 
The 42-year-old woman had to be treated at a local hospital for the injuries.
 
Her husband works at an apparel factory, her eldest son studies in college and the younger one is an eighth-grader in school.
 
The elder son told bdnews24.com that her mother has a feud with her brother over land and village chief Jalal told her mother to go to his house on Monday to discuss the matter.
 
He said her mother immediately called him on phone and informed about it. The son returned home and found Jalal dragging out his mother by her hair to the courtyard.
 

“My uncle and aunt (the housewife’s brother and sister) were also there. My uncle handed a stick to Jalal, with which he started to beat my mother in front of all those who had gathered,” he said.

The college boy alleged Jalal had several times given ‘indecent proposals’ to his mother.

The housewife told local journalists that while she was having lunch at her home on Monday, a man came and told her to go to Jalal’s home.

“After a while, he (Jalal) came to my home and tried to rape me. Failing to do so, he dragged me out of the house and started beating me up.”

Jalal said that the woman had a feud with her brother over land and he ‘punished’ the housewife for not coming to his home to discuss the issue.

“I called her to my home to solve the matter. But she did not come, so as a the village ‘matbar’ (local chief) I punished her,” he told bdnews24.com.

Jalal, however, denied the allegation of giving ‘indecent proposal’ to the woman.

The housewife had to be taken to the Kaliakoir Upazila Health Complex for the injuries she sustained.

“The woman had several injury marks on different parts of her body. She was released on Tuesday morning,” said the hospital’s emergency wing doctor Pabitra Kundu.

Police said that a complaint has been lodged. “The woman filed a case, but none has been picked up,” said Kaliakoir police OC Omar Faruqe.