Mother sent to jail with three children after cannabis arrest

A Dhaka court has sent a woman to jail along with her three children following her arrest with 30 kg of cannabis.

Her eldest son, a teenager, was sent to a juvenile correction centre.

Metropolitan Magistrate Kamal Uddin ordered Lucky Akter to be sent to Kashimpur Central Jail on Wednesday.

As there was no one to care for her younger children -- two daughters aged 6 and 1, and a 5-year-old son -- the court allowed them to remain with their mother in custody.

The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of police arrested Lucky and her four children at the airport on Tuesday.

The family had reportedly arrived from Brahmanbaria with the narcotics.

Investigating officer SI Zahida Afroz produced the family before two separate courts on Wednesday.

The eldest son, aged 17, was produced before Dhaka Children’s Court-7.

Judge Sohel Rana ordered him to be sent to the Juvenile Development Centre in Tongi.

"There was no bail petition filed today," said Sub Inspector Abu Bakr Bhuiyan of the Prosecution Police.

A lawyer, however, later collected Lucky's signature on a power of attorney, saying they would move for bail on Thursday on compassionate grounds.

Outside the courtroom, a tearful Lucky told bdnews24.com that she was driven to the drug trade by extreme poverty and domestic abuse.

"No one comes into this line of work by choice," she said, pointing to a scar on her forehead she claimed was from a recent beating by her husband.

"My husband doesn't provide for us. He has two wives and often hits me. I couldn't even give my children one meal a day."

Lucky explained that she had no relatives to leave her children with, as her mother lives in Chattogram and her brother is abroad.