A Chittagong court yesterday framed charges against eight people for the deaths of 12 in the Bahaddarhat flyover collapse after rejecting the prosecution’s plea for further investigation into the incident.
The court of Metropolitan Sessions Judge SM Mojibur Rahman passed the order and fixed July 16 for recording deposition in the case, said Omar Fuad, bench assistant of the court.
The eight accused – then Project Manager Gias Uddin, Supervising Engineer Manjurul Islam, Site Engineer Abdul Jalil, Quality Control Engineer Shahjahan Ali, Aminur Rahman, Abdul Hai, Mosharraf Hossain Riaz of Mir Akhter and Parisha Trade Systems and one Rafiqul Islam – are on bail from the High Court, sources said. Of them, the name of Rafiqul was not in the First Information Report.
On November 24 night in 2012, at least 12 people were killed and 13 others injured critically as three girders of the under-construction Bahaddarhat Flyover collapsed due to substandard construction materials and lack of security measures.
A case was lodged on November 26 against three officials of Chittagong Development Authority, 10 officials of Mir Akhter and Parisha Trade Systems and 12 officials of consultancy firm SRM Associates and DPM.
Inspector (investigation) Rezaul Karim of Chandgaon police station on October 24, 2013 submitted the charge sheet before the court, implicating only eight people, including seven accused in the FIR.
On March 9 this year, the CMM court sent the case to Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s court.
The Public Prosecutor Md Fakhruddin Chowdhury said police submitted the charge sheet dropping the names of 18 influential accused, including three CDA officials named as Executive Engineer AAM Habibur Rahman, then project director Assistant Engineer Tanjib Hossain and Deputy Assistant Engineer Salah Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury.
Besides, the IO dropped the names of three officials of Mir Akhter and Parisha Trade Systems including its Managing Director Abdur Razzak and 12 officials of consultancy firm SRM Associates and DPM including its Managing Director MA Motin from the charge sheet as he did not find any evidence against them, said the PP.
The Bangladesh Army later completed the construction of the flyover which was opened to traffic on December 31 last year.