Daily Star journalist Ashfaqul, wife cleared in case over injury of 9-year-old domestic worker

The 9-year-old victim and her mother had no objection to their acquittal after receiving Tk 200,000

A Dhaka court has acquitted The Daily Star's Executive Editor Syed Ashfaqul Haque and his wife Tania Khondoker of charges in a case over the injury of a child domestic worker after falling from their eighth floor flat in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur last year.

The couple remain in jail in another case where 15-year-old domestic help Preeti Urang died after falling from the same flat this year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Zaki Al-Farabi accepted the final report of the case on Monday, clearing them of the charges in the first case.

Helal Uddin, sub-inspector of court police’s general recording wing, revealed the information on Thursday.

The 9-year-old victim and her mother Josna Begum, the plaintiff of the case, said during the submission of the investigation report that they had received a Tk 200,000 cheque and had

‘no objection’ to the acquittal of the couple.

The girl was seriously injured after jumping off Ashfaqul’s flat through a window on Aug 6, five days after she was brought to the house by a woman named Asma Akter Shilpi.

Josna said in the case her eldest daughter had worked at Shilpi's house, who is the third accused in the case.

After the eldest daughter had returned home around a month before the incident, Shilpi hired the 9-year-old and sent her to work at Ashfaqul and Tania’s home.

In the latest case, teenage Preeti from a family of tea workers belonging to the Urang community of Moulvibazar, fell from the flat and died on Feb 6.

Ashfaqul and Tania are accused of culpable homicide, or negligence leading to the death, in the case over Preeti’s death.

The couple were arrested and remanded in police custody after the latest incident.

A court rejected their bail petition on Tuesday.