Madhuri had resolved not to cry as Sonu recounted the torture he endured during his six years in Bangladesh. She had heard some of it from Sonu’s saviour Jamal, but when her son spoke on Thursday, her determination crumbled.
“She (kidnapper Rahima) would starve him for little mistakes. There were times he was denied food for two to three days,” said Madhuri.
Once, Sonu dozed off when Rahima had told him to keep the fire place burning. “She hit him with a burning stick, leaving marks,” said his father Mehboob.
Denied education, Sonu’s daily chore was rearing of cows, buffaloes and goats. “I lifted cow dung everyday. If I said no, I would be beaten,” said Sonu, who is visibly shy. If he dared to protest the treatment meted out to him, he would be punished with the difficult task of grazing the cows. “The cattle would run in different directions and my son would be chasing them breathlessly,” the father added.
Rahima and her sisters had terrorised Sonu to an extent that he kept to himself. This was until his neighbour, Jamal, sensed something amiss. When he approached Sonu, the boy initially claimed all was fine. Jamal soon befriended Sonu, who told him that Rahima was not his mother. Trouble began when Rahima caught a whiff of what was happening. She got false cases of theft and assault registered against Jamal, who was then jailed for a month. He continues to battle the charges and has lost his job, said Mehboob.
The boy was terrorised to an extent that he never spoke to anyone about his past
