Bangladesh cricketer Shahadat Hossain's wife arrested over maid torture

Dhaka: Bangladesh police arrested international cricketer Shahadat Hossain's wife on Sunday over allegations of beating and torturing their 11-year-old maid, an officer said.

The 29-year-old paceman was suspended last month when police raided his house after officers found the injured and crying maid on a street in the capital Dhaka.

He and his wife Nritto Shahadat had been on the run since. "Nritto Shahadat was arrested from her parents' house," inspector Shafiqur Rahman told AFP.

"We conducted a raid at the house as we had information that the couple was hiding there. But we only found her," he said, adding police were still hunting for Hossain.

The maid, Mahfuza Akter Happy, told police and local media in September that the couple beat her, while television footage showed her looking frail and thin with swollen black eyes.

Police had found her hand charred with a hot cooking paddle and injury marks all over her body. A case has been filed against Shahadat and his wife, who could face charges of child repression and employing a minor. Shahadat played 38 Tests and 51 one-day internationals for Bangladesh.