Asthma tied to a bed at the DMCH as she became restive following the arrest of her mentally challenged sister Sumi.Photo: Courtesy Bruises, cuts and blisters on Asma's body have led her family and neighbours to believe that she was tortured to death at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The shocking account of injury marks, given by the women who washed her body before the burial, brings to light t
elltale signs of torture. The body bore bruises of different sizes. A few spots in her legs were so badly grazed that flesh showed up. There were a deep cut in the back of her head and blisters in parts of the bottom. Asthma with her husband Jahirul in a photograph. Photo: Courtesy On October 12, Asma, 25, along with her younger sister Sumi was caught by DMCH security personnel while they were sneaking away with her newborn. Asma had undergone a caesarean section the day before. While she was forced to stay back at the hospital, Sumi was charged with baby stealing. Asma died the next day. Later, in different media reports, the DMCH authorities were quoted as saying that renal failure and anaemia, among other medical conditions, caused her death. No postmortem was done on the body. Asma's family members, however, claimed she had been in good health and never complained of any such problems. Advertisement Her neighbours Sheuly Khandaker, 30, Firoza Akhter, 45, Shilpi, 30, and Josna Akhter, 35, washed the body on Alhaj Mohiuddin Government Primary School premises in Tongi on the late morning of October 14. Firoza said there was a deep, unstitched cut in the head. Buried as it was underneath her hair, it began to spill blood when she happened to touch it. "As soon as I touched the cut, two of my fingers slipped through it, making blood stream forth." Firoza, who is no stranger to preparing bodies for burial, shuddered as she described the injury marks on Asma's body. The baby boy Asma gave birth to by a caesarean section on October 11. Photo: Courtesy Doctors contacted by The Daily Star were shocked to hear the accounts. A mother who was trying to run away a day after a caesarean section cannot die all of a sudden the next day, they said. "The matter is extremely suspicious. It should be investigated immediately," said Dr Ahmed Faruque of the capital's Care Hospital. Firoza also said Asma was found biting her tongue, which, Dr Faruque explained, usually happens to those strangled or subjected to a very painful death. Her wrists bore deep circular marks, as if they were cuffed for a very long time, said Shilpi. Wishing anonymity, a gynaecologist at the DMCH said it is unlikely for a postnatal patient to die so abruptly of renal failure given that she had attempted an escape just 24 hours back. Another DMCH doctor, who would not be identified, said a blow by a blunt object or even punches may cause a fatal renal failure immediately. “Obviously, details of the injuries and the sudden death of an apparently healthy woman call for a probe,” he said. The way Asma's body was hastily discharged by the hospital authorities, too, raises questions. After she died at 9:00pm, the authorities hired a microbus in no time and sent her body to her Tongi Boubazar house by 12:00am without even asking her family for the expenses or for the outstanding bills, said Taslima Begum, Asma's mother. Taslima Begum, Asma's mother, and Shahadat. Photo: Star This kind of arrangement is highly unusual, said DMCH sources. “Police even warned us against crying as they forced us on board the vehicle carrying the body,” said Taslima. Asma was in her senses even when she was being carried to the ICU hours before her death. "Where is my boy Shahadat?" Asma was quoted by her mother as saying. "Bring him to me. I will buy him something to eat." Shahadat is Asma's son from her first marriage. A senior nurse, wishing not to be named, told this correspondent that Asma was taken to the ICU after her kidneys and liver ceased to function. She, however, skirted around the question whether she noticed any injury marks on her body at that time. DMCH employee Lala Das, who filed the case with Shahbagh Police Station under the anti-human trafficking act, said he was forced to do so by the authorities who threatened him with consequences in the event of non-compliance. "The case was written by police, so I could not even see what was written there. I was only asked to sign it," said Lala who is the sweeper supervisor on the hospital's first floor. Asma's husband Jahirul outright denied the allegations brought against his sister-in-law. "It was never an act of stealing. They were running away to avoid paying the hospital bills," he said. “God knows why they killed my wife, but I know they did it.” The case statement mentioned that Sumi, posing herself as Asma's sister, was roaming about the labour ward and was caught stealing the baby. "It's a false statement because both of them really are my daughters, and they were together when caught," said Asma's mother Taslima. Asma's treatment history at the DMCH could not be known, as her family failed to give this correspondent any such document. The DMCH authorities had said that Asma was an addict, an allegation completely dismissed by her parents and neighbours. When DMCH Director Brig Gen Mustafizur Rahman was asked about Asma's injury marks, he flew into a rage and pushed this correspondent in the chest towards the exit. Earlier in late August, the DMCH came in for a lot of criticism when the theft of a newborn exposed serious security flaws at the country's premier public hospital. The baby was rescued by law enforcers a week after. The High Court ordered a judicial probe, which is still on.
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