She could not take it anymore.
Sonia Akhter, a 17-year-old garment worker, lived with her parents at a tin-shed house in the city’s Pallabi.
Three months ago, they rented two rooms at Tk 5,000 per month.
Since the family moved in, the landlady had been keeping the electricity shut every day for about 10 hours from the morning.
The woman also snapped water supply to the tenants and asked them to collect water from a reservoir once a day, citing high electricity and water bills.
According to the contract, the owner was supposed to pay the bills.
The tenants had long been protesting this attitude, Sonia’s father Abdus Salam told The Daily Star yesterday. The owner didn’t even allow them to watch TV as the sound “disturbed” her.
Sujon, a 14-year-old cousin of Sonia, came to visit them Friday morning. It was a hot day; he was feeling uneasy with ceiling fans left idle amid no electricity.
Around noon, Sonia went to the landlady, Rokeya Begum, who lives in other rooms of the house, to request her for a resumption of the power supply.
Triggering a squabble, the woman said such a request could not be entertained.
Around 4:00pm, Rokeya along with her son and daughter beat up Sonia, Sonia’s mother, younger sister Rita, 16, and the cousin.
Rokeya’s husband Noor Hossain, who works as a civilian staff in the Bangladesh Army, did not take part in the beating but hurled abuse at Sonia and her mother, Salam said.
In the evening, the teenage girl committed suicide in her room, locking the door from inside.
Around 8:00pm, as the family members, knocking on the door, got no response from Sonia, they broke in and found Sonia hanging from the ceiling.
Police recovered her body from the house around 10:00pm Friday and sent it to the Dhaka Medical College morgue.
Abdul Latif, officer-in-charge of Pallabi Police Station, said the landlady along with her son and daughter beat up Sonia on Friday.
Hours later, the girl went to her room and hanged herself from the ceiling with a scarf, he added.
Family members said Sonia had killed herself in shame following continuous abuse and insult by the landlady.
Rokeya Begum, her son Tipu, 18, and 23-year-old daughter Sharifa now stand accused of inciting the “suicide” in a case filed by Sonia’s mother Salma Begum.
Police detained the trio and produced them in court.
The morgue sources said there were injury marks on Sonia’s head but the cause of her death was hanging.
The OC said Rokeya, 55, during interrogation denied her involvement in the beating of the girl. Rather, she said she heard that Sonia got beaten during a quarrel with “outsiders”.
Her husband could not be reached by this correspondent.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
