A Dhaka court has sent Hasibur Rahman, the boyfriend of actress Lina Akhter alias Ridhika Ridhi, to jail in a case filed over abetment of her suicide, following the recovery of her body from the capital’s Bashundhara Residential Area.
On Sunday, Metropolitan Magistrate Mahbub Alam’s court passed the order following a petition by the police.
Dhaka Metropolitan Prosecution Department Sub-Inspector Kamal Hossain confirmed the matter, adding that the court has set Tuesday for the hearing of a bail petition filed by the defence counsel.
The accused was not brought into the courtroom as there was no remand prayer. Earlier, the investigation officer of the case, Sub-Inspector Abdul Wadud of Vatara Police Station, produced the accused in court with a petition seeking to keep him detained in jail.
In the petition, police said Hasibur mentally tortured Ridhika over the phone regarding various issues and incited her to commit suicide.
It is alleged that, unable to tolerate this torture and abetment, Ridhika hanged herself sometime between 5am and 5:30am on Saturday. The petition also mentioned that during primary interrogation, Hasibur confessed to the crime and admitted his involvement in the incident.
According to the First Information Report (FIR), Ridhika Akhter’s body was recovered on 15 August, hanging from a ceiling fan with a scarf (orna) wrapped around her neck, from a rented flat in the Bashundhara Residential Area where she lived and worked in the media.
Her family alleged that Ridhika and Hasibur had been in a long-term relationship, during which Hasibur subjected her to physical and mental abuse from the outset.
The FIR further details that on the night of 14 August, Ridhika was at her flat with two friends, Ishan and Jannat. At around 11pm, an argument broke out between Ridhika and Hasibur over the phone, after which Leena asked her friends to sleep in the drawing room.
At approximately 5:30am the next morning, Hasibur arrived at the flat and knocked on the door.
When Ridhika’s friends opened the door, Hasibur informed them that Ridhika had hanged herself out of anger at him. Upon entering the bedroom, they found her hanging from the ceiling fan. She was quickly rescued and rushed to Kurmitola General Hospital, where the attending doctor declared her dead.
Following the incident, Ridhika’s mother, Moni Begum, lodged a case with Vatara Police Station, accusing Hasibur of abetment of suicide. Police subsequently arrested Hasibur from the Bashundhara area at around 9:30pm that night.
