A Dhaka court has allowed the police to question in custody The Daily Star’s Executive Editor Syed Ashfaqul Haque and his wife Tania Khondoker over the death of a domestic worker.

Metropolitan Magistrate Saifur Rahman approved a four-day custody of the couple after Sub-Inspector Nazmul Hasan of Mohammadpur Police Station produced them in court and sought a 10-day custody on Tuesday.

Sub-Inspector Helal Uddin of court police’s general recording wing said lawyers Ashok Kumar Biswas, Chaitanya Chandra Halder and Ashraf Ul Alam filed a bail plea and sought cancellation of the remand order.

The court passed the remand order after hearing arguments of the defence and the prosecution.

Helal said the defendants also spoke at the hearing when the judge asked them some questions.

The victim, 15-year-old Preeti Urang, died after falling from the eighth floor flat of Ashfaqul on Shahjahan Road in Mohammadpur on Feb 6.

The charges against the couple involve negligence resulting in death, according to Mahfuzul Haque Bhuiyan, the chief of Mohammadpur Police Station.

Ashraful Alam, the lawyer for the couple, had earlier argued that his clients are accused of committing a bailable offence - culpable homicide not amounting to murder, but the court denied them bail.

A similar incident had taken place at Ashfaqul's flat on Aug 6 last year, when a 9-year-old house help was severely injured after jumping out of a window in the building.

Her mother accused Ashfaqul, Tania, and another woman of torturing the child in a case over the incident.

The latest victim, Preeti, is a member of the Urang community in Moulvibazar's Kamalganj Upazila. She had been working as a domestic aide at Ashfaqul's house for about two years at the time of her death.