Deceased Diya Khanam Mim's family has expressed dissatisfaction with a court's verdict in the Airport Road accident case.
A Dhaka court sentenced two Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan bus drivers and a driver's assistant to life imprisonment in the case filed over the deaths of students Diya Khanam Mim and Abdul Karim Rajib.
Articulating dissatisfaction with the verdict, Diya’s family demanded the state counsel go to the High Court and appeal for the death sentence for driver Masum Billah.
Diya's maternal uncle Selim Hossain said: “Masum had no licence or any other credential to drive the bus. He should be hanged."
File Photo: Two students of Shaheed Ramiz Uddin School and College -- Diya Khanam Mim, left, and Abdul Karim Rajib- were killed when a Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan bus ploughed through some students in front of Kurmitola General Hospital on Airport Road on July 29 | Collected
Quoting the family, he further urged that adolescent driving should be strictly monitored in Bangladesh.
On Sunday, Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Imrul Qayes passed the verdict in the Airport Road accident case.
The convicts are Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan bus driver Zobair Sumon, Masum Billah, and assistant Kazi Asad.
The court also fined them Tk50,000, in default of which, they will have to serve an additional six months in jail.
The court also acquitted Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan bus owner Jahangir Alam and assistant Enayet Hossain in the same case.
On July 29, 2018, Diya and Rajib, students of Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College, were killed as a Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan bus ploughed through a crowd while competing with another bus of the same company in front of Kurmitola General Hospital in Dhaka's Airport Road.
A massive road safety movement followed after this incident, which led to the foundation of the Road Transport Act 2018 that came into force from November 1, 2019.