Bangladesh court sentences four people to 10 years in jail over child's death after falling into abandoned deep tube-well

A Bangladesh court has convicted four persons, including railway officials of negligence causing death of a child, who fell into an abandoned deep tube-well in the capital.

In December 2014, a 4-year- old boy fell into a deep tube-well of the Bangladesh Railway in Dhaka in 2014.
 
Five railway engineers and the contractor, who had set up the well, had been charged of death due to negligence in the case started by the boy's father.
 

Rescuers had called of their search after 23 hours, but locals managed to pull out Jihad soon afterwards but he was dead by then. File photo

On Sunday, a Dhaka court gave its decision over the incident, which shook the nation.

Four railway officials and the contractor have been found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison each.

They are railway Senior Sub-Assistant Engineer Jahangir Alam, who was in charge of the project, the contractor Abdus Salam, Assistant Engineer Md Nasir Uddin and Electric Engineer Abu Zafar Ahmed Shaki.

They have been also slapped a fine of Tk 200,000 each, failing to pay which will cause another two years in jail.

The court acquitted assistant engineers Dipak Kumar Bhoumik and Md Saiful Islam as charges leveled against them have not been proven.

The verdict, by the court of Dhaka's Fifth Special Judge Md Akhaturazzam, observed that it was the convicts' negligence which caused the death of the boy.

Jiahd fell trough the 14-inch opening of this unsealed pipe. File photo

In the afternoon of Dec 26 2014, 'Jihad' fell through the 14-inch opening of a pipe of deep tube-well of Bangladesh Railway, which was unsealed even after it was abandoned.

Rescuers had called off their search after 23 hours, but the locals refused to give up. They 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. 

The boy's father, who filed the case, said on Sunday that he was not satisfied with verdict as two of the defendants have been acquitted and that he would move the High Court.