The 10-year-old house help, whose body was recovered last week from an apartment in the capital, was tortured to death by her employer over a trivial incident involving eating food that was kept for others, police said.
The employer Sathi Parvin, 40, beat Hena, the house help, with a wooden utensil and choked her with her foot, accusing the 10-year-old of eating food of her daugter. The torture was so severe that the child defecated, said Muhammad Ashraf Hossain, Deputy Commissioner of Ramna Division of DMP, at a press conference at DMP Media Centre yesterday.
Sathi had been on the run since August 26, when police recovered Hena's body from her Central Road flat. Police arrested her on Saturday in Jashore.
The police found footage of her torture in the CCTV footage of the house, said the police official.
In a bid to avoid being tracked by police, Sathi left four mobile phones at home when she fled, he added. However, police could trace her whereabouts by scrutinising the seized phones.
Mofizur Rahman, the caretaker of the seven-storey apartment building, said Sathi had been living in the flat, owned by her ex-husband, with her four-year-old daughter and Hena.
Hena had been working in that house for the last three years, he added.
After her arrest, Sathi gave distressing details of the torture, Saiful Islam, officer-in-charge of Kalabagan Police Station, told The Daily Star on Saturday.
Sathi was supposed to pay Hena's aunt Tk 2,000 a month, which she stopped paying after a few months.
"Sathi used to torture Hena with excuses like not doing her job properly and not paying heed to her instructions. On the day of the incident, Sathi beat her with a wooden lentil mixer and then stepped and pressed on her throat," said the OC.
Hena's entire body had several signs of torture, said morgue sources at the Dhaka Medical College.