Published : 09 Mar 2026, 11:23 PM
Updated : 21 Aug 2026, 03:27 PM
Even after allegedly enduring days of abuse at the home of former Biman Bangladesh Airlines MD and CEO Safiqul Rahman, the young domestic worker remains “haunted by trauma”.
Speaking to reporters during Monday’s hearing, the girl said the scenes of abuse replay relentlessly in her dreams, recalling how she was treated by everyone in the household.
The hearing was held at Dhaka’s Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-9.
Fahmida Akter Rinky, a legal officer from the One Stop Crisis Center, advocated for the girl to be placed in her father’s custody.
Presiding Judge Shahadat Hossain Bhuiyan subsequently ordered that the child be handed to her father.
Her father Ghulam Mostofa told reporters that his daughter spent over a month in hospital treatment and has still not fully recovered.
He said the repeated “hair-pulling” at the ex-MD’s house caused damage to her right eye, and her right leg continues to hurt, requiring further medical care.
Mostofa vowed that there will be no compromise in pursuing justice: “The case will continue.”
The abuse case was filed by Mostofa, a hotel employee, on Feb 1 against Safiqul Rahman and his wife, known only as Bithi, along with two domestic workers, Rupali Khatun and Sufia Begum, who are currently in jail.
According to the case, the girl was recruited through a security guard in Uttara Sector-9 and sent to work at the MD’s home in June of last year, after assurances that all expenses, including her marriage, would be covered.
Mostofa last visited his daughter at the house on Nov 2 but was subsequently denied access.
On Jan 31, Bithi informed him by phone that the girl was unwell.
When he went to collect her that evening, he found her hands and body severely injured and barely able to speak.
The girl told her father that she had been regularly beaten, and subjected to torture, including being branded with a heated metal rod at the house.
