Shohagh Paribahan driver, assistant released on bail a day after transport strike ends

A Faridpur court has granted bail to a bus driver and his assistant, whose arrest in a robbery case led to a transport strike in the southern districts.

The judge of the Fourth Cognisance Court, Golam Sarwar, granted them 10 weeks’ interim bail on Tuesday, a day after the withdrawal of the strike. 
 
A meeting between the home minister and the transporters decided to shift the case to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) from the Faridpur Police and withdraw the six-day transport strike in the south.
 
Shohagh Paribahan driver ‘Aynal’, 38, and his assistant ‘Shakil’ were released in the evening after the order reached the district jail.
 
Public Prosecutor Khorsheduzzaman Dulu said the district bus owners’ association Convener Sajjad Hossain Barkat and Joint Convener Khandkar Rashed were the guarantors of their bail.
 
Hearing on their remand petition was scheduled for Tuesday but the investigation officer, Madhukhali Police Station Sub-Inspector ‘Rouf’, filed a petition seeking postponement, he said.
 
However, defence lawyer Narayan Chandra Das filed the bail pleas.
 
After hearing the arguments of both sides, the court issued the two 10-week interim bail on a bond of Tk 10,000 by Barkat and Rashed, said the public prosecutor.
 
The bus was robbed at Faridpur’s Madhukhali on the night of May 18. The passengers, including travellers to India, were robbed of a large sum of cash, gold ornaments, and mobile-phone sets.
 
Based on passenger complaints, police first detained Aynal and Shakil and then showed them arrested in a case filed in connection with the robbery.
 
Supervisor Shahidul Islam, 30, has been absconding.

Transporters called a strike in the southern districts demanding their unconditional release and the withdrawal of the Faridpur SP and Madhukhali Police Station OC.
 
After causing immense suffering to commuters for six days in the southern Khulna region, bus owners and workers called off their strike following the meeting with the home minister.