Tenants make two landlords unconscious, loot valuables

The house owners, Abdul Baten, 50, a teacher, and Laila Khaleda, a housewife, and their nine family members are now undergoing treatment at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

A couple who rented a room at the house of Abdul Baten at South Dhania in Shyamapur only three days ago have been missing from the house since the incident.

On Tuesday night, Abdul Baten along with his family members fell unconscious after having their dinner.

In the morning, Jahangir, who resides in the same house, saw the landlord's room open. He then went inside only to find the room ransacked, a steel almirah broken and everybody in a deep slumber.

He also found that the new tenants of the house were not in their room, making him suspicious of their involvement.

Jahangir along with some neighbours then rushed the seven members of Baten's family to the hospital.

The family members said 10 tolas of gold, cash as well as some other valuables were also missing from their room.

In a similar incident, Laila Khaleda, her two daughters and one son fell unconscious after drinking milk at their house at Mirpur Section - 2 at around 10:30pm on Tuesday.

Khaleda's brother-in-law Dulal Hossain said when he went to their house the next morning he found all of them lying senseless and also discovered that the tenant couple was not in the house.

He said the tenants had not paid the house rent for three months and had been under pressure from Laila, whose husband lives abroad.

"It seems they mixed something with milk to make them unconscious so that they can flee the house without paying rent," he added.

No cases have been filed with the police as of the filing of this report last night.