The conductor was driving the Suprovat Paribahan bus that crushed to death Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) student Abrar Ahmed Chowdhury on March 19 while fleeing from the scene of another accident, police say.
The conductor, Yasin Arafat, was trying to escape from the first accident spot following the bus owner’s instruction, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Additional Commissioner Abdul Baten said at a press briefing on Wednesday.
Yasin was arrested from Chandpur’s Shahrasti on Tuesday, while the bus driver’s assistant, Ibrahim, was held from Dhaka’s Madhya Badda area on Wednesday morning.
A Dhaka court later on Wednesday granted police seven days to interrogate the two men in a case filed over Abrar’s death.
Metropolitan Magistrate Sadbir Yasin Ahasn Chowdhury passed the order after case investigation officer Qazi Shariful Islam produced them before the court.
On March 20, another court had granted seven days' remand for driver Sirajul Islam, 24.
BUP student Abrar was run over by the Suprobhat Paribahan bus on the morning of March 19 as he was crossing the road in front of Jamuna Future Park in the capital’s Kuril area.
Later, students of the university blockaded roads — reigniting the road safety movement for several days — and placed an eight-point charter of demands, calling for safer roads and strict implementation of traffic rules and laws.
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They also demanded the death sentence for the driver responsible for Abrar’s death.
Abrar’s father, retired Brig Gen Arif Ahammed Chowdhury, later filed a case against the driver, his assistant, conductor and owner of the bus at Gulshan police station.
Briefing the media on Wednesday, DMP official Abdul Baten said: “While crossing Bashtola at Shazadpur in Gulshan, the Suprovat Paribahan bus ran over Synthia Sultana Mukta, a first-year student of Mirpur Ideal Girls’ Laboratory College, and severely injured her.”
Afterwards, the passengers handed over driver Sirajul to the police and the bus was parked a few yards away from the scene of the accident at the time, he said.
“Yasin called bus owner Noni Gopal Sarker, who instructed him to drive the vehicle away, fearing that a mob might vandalise it or set it on fire,” Baten said.
He added that Abrar was run over by the vehicle as Yasin, who does not have a driving licence, was in a hurry to escape at the directive of the owner.
“The police initially assumed that Sirajul was responsible for the second incident, but after interrogating him, we came to know that Yasin was driving the bus.”
Baten also said that the charge sheet of the case would be submitted in court within a month.