Preeti Urang's death: Shahbagh protestors claim police favoured The Daily Star executive editor; call for his sacking

Protesters who gathered in the capital's Shahbagh today (15 February), criticised the role of the police in the investigation into the death of 15-year-old Preeti Urang, who died after falling from the ninth floor residence of The Daily Star's Executive Editor Syed Ashfaqul Haque.

At the protest and human chain organised under the banner "Shahbagh against Oppression" in front of the national museum, Jibon Joyanto, a lawyer and human rights activists, criticised Mohammadpur Police Station's role over the case statement and the delay in filing the case. 

"If you read the case statement, you may find that the words written by the police and Preeti Urang's father don't match. The same OC who cleared an earlier incident of another domestic worker falling from the same building ensured that the case statement goes in favour of the accused," he said.

"They took them to the police station within two hours. Then why did it take more than 24 hours to file the case?"

Shahed Kayes, poet and human rights defender, said Preeti's death was no accident.

"The girl was murdered. Why would the family of the executive editor of the country's most prestigious daily hire a child as domestic help? There was another similar incident which took place a few months back. If The Daily Star authorities took action then, this second incident wouldn't happen," he said. 

The human rights activist also demanded the immediate release or resignation of Ashfaqul Haque from the daily for the sake of impartial investigation. 

Dipak Sen, president of the Bangladesh Chhatra Union, said from the very beginning, police took the side of the accused. 

"Now, information has come to light that the perpetrators tried to cover up the incident by offering Tk2 lakh to the victim's family. Why did they attempt to cover up the incident if they didn't do any crime? And why has The Daily Star still kept him in the second most powerful position of the organisation?"

He said they doubted the investigation would be impartial or free of bias. 

"If the daily doesn't sack him immediately, we, the readers, will launch a boycott campaign."   

Zakiya Sultana, a domestic workers' rights activist, also questioned the inaction of the newspaper.

"The police didn't arrest them to face the music, but did so to save them from the angry mob," she added. 

Women rights activist Elora Dewan said the role of the media in Ashfaqul's case was also questionable. 

"We expect better unbiased coverage of any incident whether the alleged person is a journalist or not," she said. 

On 6 February, the house help, Preeti Urang, 15, fell from the ninth floor of a building in the capital's Shahjahan road, sustaining heavy injuries. 

After being taken to a nearby hospital, the on-duty doctor declared her dead. 

The next day, her father, Lokesh Urang, filed a case with Mohammadpur police station, naming journalist Syed Ashfaqul Haque and his wife, Tania Khondoker.

Following the filing of the case, Haque and his wife Tania Khondoker were arrested on 7 February.

Later on 13 February, a Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate court granted four-day remand for both the accused.

The couple is now in police custody for further interrogation over the missing memory card of a CCTV camera which was set up at the crime scene. 

In the case statement, Lukesh Urang said his daughter had been sent to Dhaka two years ago to work as a maid, aiming to alleviate their family's financial struggles. 

Throughout this period, Preeti never visited her family, with Lukesh relying on occasional phone calls to the house owner to stay in touch.

Lukesh Urang, as the plaintiff, also said Preeti fell from the 8th floor of apartment No. 2/7 in Mohammadpur's Shahjahan Road area around 8am on Tuesday due to the absence of safety bars on the window of the flat's drawing space. He highlighted that a similar incident occurred last year on 4 August, where another housekeeper sustained severe injuries from falling out of the same window.

Lukesh attributed these repeated accidents to the negligence and carelessness of the house owner and occupants, emphasising the lack of protective barriers on the windows as the root cause.