On June 17, a woman named Runa Laila was arrested in a case over alleged theft and was brought to the Kashimpur Women`s Central Jail, the country`s sole female-only jail in Gazipur. After that, she was taken to a prison cell by the jail authorities after a three-tier search as prisoner.
When she went to the hall room inside the jail and changed her clothes and returned from the washroom, others saw some cash in her hand.
Jailer Farhana Akter was immediately informed of the matter and she appeared there in no time. This is because the inmates there raised the question: how can a prisoner possess money inside a jail despite such tight security?
It is alleged that the jailer ordered Deputy Jailer Jannatun Tayyiba, Matron Fatema, Jail Guards -- Hafiza, Sahida and Shamima, as well as prisoners -- Shamima Noor Papia, Tayeba. Roxy, Anandika, Avantika and Sonali – to severely beat up Runa Laila.
They took turns beating up Runa Laila for three hours. At that time, Runa repeatedly kept saying, “I kept the money with me. It`s not my fault if you don`t check and find it.
“Please, take the money and don’t beat me any longer,” she begged – but to no avail, until they stopped themselves.
They started beating her in a place where there is no CC camera. At one stage, Runa Laila started vomiting and fainted before she excreted and peed.
After that, the attackers left her on the ground there.
After being freed from there upon bail on June 21, one of the inmates narrated the horrific account of what had happened to Runa Laila in the jail.
She first described these to her brother, Abdul Karim. The next day, he went there to meet her on the jail premises. But his efforts to do so failed despite following all procedures to meet his sister.
He told thereport.live that he was highly doubtful about his sister’s security.
“I don’t even know if she is alive now. I went there on June 22 with my wife. But they did not allow us to meet Rula Laila,” he said.
“Instead, Deputy Jailer Jannatun Tayyiba shouted at me when I sought her help in this regard. Someone else pretending to be my sister talked to me over the phone,” Karim maintained.
The man wrote to the deputy commissioner of Gazipur narrating the miseries of his sister in the jail.
“The woman who talked to me by phone on June 24 is not my sister. I have the recorded conversation with her and me.
“She could not say our father’s name and her voice did not match that of my sister. I fear my sister is not alive anymore,” said a heartbroken Karim.
When contacted, Jailer Farhana Akter admitted that they found Tk7,200 in Runa’s possession.
“But she refused to hand over the money to us. As one of our guards tried to take the money, she engaged in a scuffle with the guard. When others tried to calm them down, Runa attacked them too,” she said.
However, the jailer claimed that Runa was doing well.
“Please, send her brother tomorrow (Monday). We will allow him to meet his sister at 12\noon,” the jailer told the reporter.
On the allegations raised, she termed those baseless.
But it has been learnt that the case of Runa Laila reportedly being assaulted is not the only or the first one a prisoner faces in that jail.
At least two inmates including one serving a life sentence were badly beaten there too recently.
