Railway engineer Jahangir Alam gets bail in child Jihad’s death case

A Dhaka court has granted bail to railway engineer Jahangir Alam accused of causing the death of four-year-old ‘Jihad’ by negligence.

The senior sub-assistant engineer was in hiding for roughly five months following child Jihad’s death after he fell into the gaping pipe of an abandoned deep tube-well in Dhaka’s Shahjahanpur.

Alam was heading a project to replace the tube-well. 

Alam appeared in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Ashok Kumar Dutta on Thursday and sought bail. 

His request was granted, as the plaintiff, Jihad’s father Nasir Fakir, raised no objection, the court's General Recording Officer SI Aminul Islam told bdnews24.com.

Lawyer Ashraful Alam argued for Alam while Md Jashim Uddin Khan stood for Fakir. 

The charge-sheet accusing Alam and Abdus Salam, owner of SR House, the contractors awarded the project, was filed on Apr 7.

If the charge of causing death by negligence is proved, the accused could face life terms. 

Salam had surrendered on Mar 8 and was given bail on Apr 26. 

Jihad fell through the pipe’s 14-inch opening, which was kept unsealed even after it was abandoned.
Rescuers had called off their 23-hour search around 2:30pm on Dec 27, but the locals refused to give up.

They finally pulled out Jihad soon afterwards but the child was dead by then.

Doctors at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital said he had died several hours before being taken to the hospital.

Jihad’s father Nasir Fakir accused Alam and Salam of causing death by negligence in the case filed with Shahjahanpur Police.

Alam was dismissed in an immediate reaction by the rail authorities, while SR House was blacklisted.

The mouth of the pipe was sealed after the child was retrieved.