Bus driver gets life in prison in case over deaths of Tareque Masud, Mishuk Munier

A Manikganj court has ordered life in prison for the man who was driving the bus involved in a road crash that left filmmaker Tareque Masud, ATN News CEO Mishuk Munier and three others killed.

On Wednesday, the court of additional district and sessions judge delivered the verdict over the 2011 road crash with the defendant on the docks.

The court found the bus driver Jamir Hossain guilty and ordered life imprisonment.

Police arrested bus driver Jamir Hossain from Meherpur two days after the road crash.

Prosecutor Afsarul Islam said that the convict received the maximum punishment of life sentence stipulated under the Bangladesh Penal Code's Section 304 for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

He has been also fined Tk 5,000, failing to pay which will result in another three months in jail.

Over a separate charge pressed under penal code's Section 427 for mischief causing loss or damage, the convict has received a two-year prison term.

The convict has to pay a Tk 2,000 fine for the offence or else will have to spend a month in jail, said Prosecutor Islam.

Hossain, who was out on bail, has been taken to prison after the verdict was announced on Wednesday.

The accident occurred when the bus hit a car on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway at Manikganj's Ghior Upazila on Aug 13, 2011.

Five persons were killed while four others were injured in the road crash.

Catherine Masud in front of a memorial built out from the damaged car at the Dhaka University.

Tareque Masud, who shot to fame in the global arena for his films 'Muktir Gaan' and 'Matir Moyna', was on the process to start the shoot for his new film 'Kagojer Phool.'

Mishuk Munier, a former journalism teacher and reputed cinematographer, was the then CEO of Dhaka-based TV channel ATN News.

They were on their way back to Dhaka from Manikganj after visiting a shooting location for the new film.

The three others killed in the crash were the car's driver 'Mustafiz', Tareque's production manager 'Wasim' and staffer 'Jamal'.

Tareque's wife Catherine, painter Dhali Al-Mamun and his wife Dilara Begum Jolly, and Tareque's production assistant Saidul Islam sustained injuries.

The local police started a case against the driver of the 'Deluxe Paribahan' bus and two days later, he was arrested from Meherpur.

Hossain had then claimed the other vehicle's driver was responsible for the accident.

 A probe by the communication ministry found that both drivers have been negligent.

The trial started in September the same year after the court indicted Hossain, who secured bail in late 2011.

The prosecution produced 24 witnesses, including three policemen during the trial.

On Feb 19 this year, the trial concluded when the court fixed Wednesday for the verdict.

Tareque Masud

Born in 1956 in Faridpur, Tareque directed a number of critically acclaimed films such as 'Muktir Gaan' (The Song of Freedom) in 1995, 'Muktir Kotha' (The Story of Freedom) in 1996 and 'Matir Moina' (The Clay Bird), which won the International Critics' Prize and a FIPRESCI Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

He made his directorial debut with the documentary 'Adam Surat' (The Inner Strength) on the Bangladeshi painter SM Sultan in 1989.

Tareque also ran a film production house named Audiovision along with his US-born wife Catherine.

Banned by the government in May 2002, Matir Moina was the first film from Bangladesh to be put on general release in the UK.

It was also the first Bangladeshi film to compete for the Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

The latest films of the couple were 'Ontarjatra' (The Homeland) released in 2006 and 'Runway' in 2010.

Ashfaque Munier Mishuk

A reputed cinematographer, Mishuk was born in Noakhali district in 1959. The son of martyred intellectual Munier Chowdhury, Mishuk did his master's in mass communication and journalism from Dhaka University.

He was associated with film making for the last 20 years. He was also an internationally reputed news and documentary cameraperson.

Mishuk also taught broadcast journalism at the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of Dhaka University.

He took charge of ATN News station in Nov 2010, having previously worked with The Real News, a Canada-US based television news and documentary network, and the BBC.

Since 2004 till 2010, he held the post of director, news operations in Real News Network at Toronto in Canada.

He was the key shooting person for BBC world service, WTN, ARD1, Channel 4, CBC and Discovery Health in Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, Singapore, Malaysia and Canada.

Mishuk Munier worked as the head of news operations for Ekushey Television (ETV), the first private terrestrial television in Bangladesh.

Mishuk was the chief cinematographer of Tareque Masud's film 'Runway'. He worked as the director of photography for 'Return to Kandahar' (2003) and also as the cinematographer of 'Words of Freedom' (1999).