A Dhaka Court has set December 1 to announce its verdict on a case filed against six people in connection with the death of two college students on Dhaka’s Airport Road area in July last year.
Judge KM Imrul Kayes of Metropolitan Session’s Judge Court in Dhaka fixed the date after hearing the arguments of both sides on Thursday.
On July 29, 2018, Dia Khanam Mim and Abdul Karim Rajib, students of Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College, were killed when two buses of Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan ploughed through a crowd in a mad race of competing in front of Kurmitola General Hospital on the Airport Road.
Dia’s father Jahangir Alam filed the case with Cantonment Police Station in connection with the accident.
The incident triggered a wide protest following nationwide student demonstrations demanding safe roads that led to road safety movement.
Public Prosecutor Abdullah Abu presented his argument on behalf of state while defense counsels argued in defence.
The accused are – Md Shahadat Hossain, Md Masum Billah, Md Enayet Hossain, Md Jahangir Alam, Md JobayerShumon, and Asad Gazi.
Shahadat is the owner of the bus that ran over the students. Masum was driving the bus while Enayet was his assistant. The other bus owned by Jahangir was racing against the first bus. Jobayer was driving it and Asad was his assistant.
Of the six accused, four are now in jail while Kazi Asad and Jahangir Alam are on the run. Among the accused, Masum Billah and Shahadat Hossain gave confessional statements to the court.
On October 25, last year the court framed the charges after rejecting discharge petitions filed by four accused out of six in the case.
On September 6, Detective Branch of police submitted a charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court of Dhaka against two bus drivers, two helpers and two owners of two Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan.
A total of 37 out of 41 prosecution witnesses gave depositions before the court in the case.
Forty one people were made witnesses in the charge-sheet which said drivers of two buses of Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan were on competition to get more passengers and drove recklessly and ploughed through people waiting on the pavement.