B'desh cricketer Shahadat surrenders in maid torture case

Bangladesh's international cricketer Shahadat Hossain, who was absconding for about a month after being accused of torturing his 11-year-old maid, today surrendered before a court here which remanded him in judicial custody, a day after his wife was arrested in the case.
Hossain, who has played 38 Tests and 51 one-day internationals for Bangladesh, went into hiding more than three weeks ago after police sought the cricketer and his wife's arrest for allegedly torturing the girl employed as a maid in their house.
Metropolitan Magistrate Md Yusuf Hossain rejected Hossain's bail petition after he surrendered and remanded him in judicial custody pending further hearings, local media reported.

Hossain's lawyer had pleaded before the court that the pacer was a national hero and should be released on bail as his country needed him on the Bangladesh side.
Hossain's wife Nritto Shahadat, who is also an accused in the case, was arrested yesterday from her parents' house here.
She was produced before a court, where the police sought remand to question her, but the court rejected the plea and remanded her in judicial custody.

The cricketer was suspended from all forms of the game by Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on September 13 after a case was registered against him under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.

Hossain had filed a police complaint on September 6 claiming his housemaid had gone missing. But hours later, the 11-year-old girl was found crying in a street in the capital.
When she was taken to a local police station, she accused the cricketer and his wife of regular torture.
Police have said that one of her hands had been burnt with a hot cooking paddle, while other injury marks were also found on her body.
Hossain last played for Bangladesh in May against Pakistan. He went off the field on the first day of first Test with a leg injury.

The BCB had said that the reports of torturing a minor was "utterly embarrassing" and banned the pacer from all forms of cricket until the charges were settled.