A Dhaka court is set to pronounce judgment on Sunday in a case filed over deaths of college students Diya Khanam Mim and Abdul Karim Rajib in a road accident in Dhaka’s Airport Road in July, 2018.
On November 14, Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Imrul Qayes, fixed December 1 to announce the verdict as the arguments of both defence and the prosecution in the case were concluded on that day.
Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Md Abdullah Abu presented his argument on behalf of state while defence counsels presented argument from the defence side.
With this, a total of 37 out of 41 prosecution witnesses gave depositions before the court in this much-talked about case.
The court framed the charges after rejecting discharge petitions filed by four accused out of six accused in the case on October 25, 2018.
The accused are Shahadat Hossain, owner of Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan bus, which is responsible for the accident, its driver Masum Billah, his assistant Enayet Hossain, owner of another Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan bus Jahangir Alam, its driver Zobair Sumon, and his assistant Kazi Asad.
Of the six accused, four are now behind bars while Kazi Asad and Jahangir Alam are on the run. Among the accused, Masum Billah and bus owner Shahadat Hossain gave confessional statements to the court under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Earlier on September 6, 2018, 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 buses.
In the charge sheet, 41 people were made witness, which said drivers of two buses of Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan were on competition to get more passengers, and drove recklessly by ploughing through people waiting on the pavement.
On July 29, 2018, Diya Khanam Mim and Abdul Karim 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 Road Transport Act 2018 that came into force from November 1, 2019.
