Sumaiya Akter Afifa, now a twenty-year-old woman, was forcibly married off by her family to one businessman Kamrul Islam in 2011 when she was a teenager.
Her husband was more than 30 years older than her, but she accepted him and started conjugal life with him. However, she had to leave her husband’s house due to increasing physical and mental torture. But her greedy father again forced her to return to her husband as her family was totally dependent on her husband’s financial support.
At one stage, she returned to her parents in 2018 after divorcing her husband. Later, she fell in love with one Shahadat Hossain Shanto and got married secretly. However, her family could not accept her second marriage. This is why Afifa’s father Hazi Monir Hossain, now absconding, planned to kidnap his son-in-law by hired goons in association with the former husband of his daughter.
Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police unearthed the information while investigating a case under Mirpur Model Police Station recently and arrested nine members in connection with the kidnap. During the interrogation in police custody, the arrested criminals described how they kidnapped Shanto after being hired by Afifa’s father.
Four of the arrestees also gave confessional statements before the court under 164 of CrPc. Additional Deputy Commissioner of DB’s Mirpur Zonal Team, Rahul Patwary, confirmed to Bangladesh Post exclusively. He said, “Some criminals picked up Shanto introducing themselves as members of law enforcing agencies in the last week of May this year.”
A case was filed with Mirpur Model Police Station on May 29 this year. We arrested nine persons in this connection, he said adding, later four of them gave their confessional statements before the judicial magistrate. ADC Rahul said, “We also found evidences against the family members of Afifa and her first husband in kidnaping her second husband.”
We have already arrested Afifa’s first husband Kamrul Islam, her mother Ambia, brothers Abdullah Al Masud, Awlad Hossain, relatives Al Amin and hired goons Maksudur Rahman Sobuj, Sharif Hasan and Akram. On June 1, Maksudur Rahman Sobuj, Sharif Hasan, Akram gave confessional statement before Dhaka Metropolitan magistrate Yasir Ahsan Chowdhury.
Afifa said, “I was forcibly married to Kamrul, who was 30 years older. I was only in class eight when I was married. “ “I led a conjugal life with him for around seven years. Last year, I divorced him. But my family refused to accept it. They put immense pressure on me to return to Kamrul again, even after I had divorced him. As I refused to go back, my family kidnapped Shanto,’’she described.
ADC Rahul said, the family members of Afifa married her off to the old man only for money. But, the then teenage girl could not accept her old aged husband finally. There was huge age differences between Afifa and her first husband. Kamrul also physically and mentally tortured her. Despite knowing all these, Afifa’s family forced her to stay with Kamrul. Failing to sustain regular tortures, Afifa married Shanto after divorcing her first husband. Shanto worked in a mobile phone company. He was staying with his family at a rented house in city’s Mirpur area.
DB also came to know that whole family of Afifa was dependent on Kamrul. This is why her family kidnapped Afifa’s second husband to return Afifa to Kamrul again. Afifa’s father led the kidnap. But Kamrul was the mastermind. In the confession, the kidnappers admitted that Haji Monir hired them for kidnapping his son-in-law.
They picked up Shanto from his Mirpur residence introducing himself as members of law enforcing agencies. When local people came to rescue Shanto, they said that Shanto was a gold smuggler. They also claimed that they were taking him to the local police. They kept Shanto hostage at a house in city’s Kamrangirchor area. The kidnappers tortured Shanto and made his wife Afifa hear his cries over phone. They also threatened that if Afifa did not divorce Shanto, they would kill him.
Talking to Bangladesh Post, Afifa said, “I am currently with my husband Shanto. But the family members of my former husband have not given me my six-year-old son Mohammad.” She also thanked police for rescuing her husband and saving his life.
