In police custody since October for employing and abusing an 11-year-old girl as household servant for almost a year, Bangladesh fast bowler Shahadat Hossain and his wife, Nritto Shahadat, now face up to 14 years in jail.
Suspended by the Bangladesh Cricket Board from all forms of cricket since his arrest, Hossain now faces conviction under the Bangladesh’s Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.
The couple will next appear in court on January 12 when charges of causing damage or disfigurement to the limb, joint or any other part of the body of a woman or child will be brought up against them.
The minor subjected to the alleged act of brutality is known by the name ‘Happy’ and claims that Hossain and his wife used to beat her repeatedly.
“They used to beat me with sticks, kitchen utensils, punch me, and scratch me. I would be slapped a lot,” CNN quoted the girl as saying.
The maid somehow managed to escape before being found on a Dhaka street with a broken leg and other injuries in September.
Police then raided the couple’s residence but by then they had fled, which led to the cops launching a search operation. Hossain surrendered a few days after his wife was arrested from her parents’ house.
“The allegations against Shahadat and his wife were proved in our primary investigations,” police Inspector Shafiqur Rahman told AFP.
Hossain, however, has refuted the charges.
“I am innocent. Everyone who knows me will testify to that,” he had said in his only comments since being arrested in October. “A man’s dignity relies on his professional career. It seems to me that mine is being ruined,” the veteran of 38 Tests and 51 ODIs said.
