A ministerial probe report was submitted to the High Court that says the joint secretary cannot avoid his share of responsibility in the death of sixth grader Titas Ghosh.
The bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice Kamrul Kader fixed November 14 for the next hearing, after the submission of the report.
Deputy Attorney General (DAG) ABM Abdullah Al Mahmud Bashar presented the report to the court yesterday.
Earlier, a three-member probe committee headed by Sanjay Kumar Banik, an additional secretary of the Ministry of Shipping, submitted its report to the attorney general’s office on Wednesday.
However, another probe committee did not blame Abdus Sabur Mondal as he did not know that a critical patient was waiting at the ferry pontoon.
On September 5, a probe committee headed by Md Rezaul Hasan, additional secretary of the Cabinet Division, submitted a report to the Attorney General’s office.
On July 25, Titas, a sixth grader of Kalia Government Pilot High School in Narail, died in an ambulance heading towards Dhaka on a ferry that was halted for hours past the scheduled departure time at Kathalbari Ferry Terminal in Madaripur, due to the late arrival of Joint Secretary Sabur.
The report said Sabur did not know that the ferry was waiting for him and there was a critical patient on the ferry.
As such he was not directly responsible for this incident. But he sent messages to the ferry manager and called him repeatedly. And for that, he cannot deny the fact of his involvement, because the ferry waited for him which caused the death of the boy.
The report directly held responsible, four employees of Kathalbari Ferry Terminal in Madaripur.
They are, Terminal Manager Salam Hossain, Assistant Prantik Khokon Mia, Upper Class Assistant Firoz Alam, and Inland Master Samsul Alam.
On July 30, Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Mohammad Zahir Uddin filed a petition seeking compensation for the victim's family.
The petition also requested the court to direct the government to take steps so that ferries prioritize ambulances carrying critical patients, and to order the government to conduct an inquiry into the death of Titas, and to take appropriate legal action against people responsible for it.
The secretaries to the Shipping Ministry, Road Transport and Highway Division, the Inspector General of Police, and the BIWTC chairman were made respondents to the writ, among others.
