Court grants bail to 10 Biman staffers in PM plane glitch case

A Dhaka court has granted bail to 10 staff members of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines in a case opened over technical glitch in a plane that made an emergency landing with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on board last year.

Court Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 11 Dec 2017, 01:30 PM
Updated : 11 Dec 2017, 01:30 PM

Biman’s Chief Engineer (Production) Debesh Chowdhury, Chief Engineer (Quality Assurance) SA Siddik and Principal Engineer (System and Maintainence) Billal Hossain, engineering department’s SM Rokonuzzaman, Samiul Haque, Lutfur Rahman, Milan Chandra Biswas, Zakir Hossain and Technical Officer Siddiqur Rahman, engineer Nazmul Hoque and junior technician Shah Alam secured bail on Monday.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Subrata Ghosh Shubho granted bail to nine suspects, Debesh’s lawyer Parimal Kumar Biswas told bdnews24.com.

Police submitted the report on the investigation into the case on Dec 7 recommending acquittal of all 11 accused people.

Siddiqur Rahman, Nazmul Hoque, and Shah Alam were found guilty of negligence in handling equipment, the court police’s Recording Officer Sub-Inspector Moniruzzaman Mandal said.

A plea of the investigating officer to prosecute them will be sent to the Metropolitan Sessions Court for approval, he said.

The offence can lead to a jail term of six months and a fine of up to Tk 1,000 or both.

Last year on Nov 27, the Biman Boeing 777 'Ranga Prabhat' carrying the prime minister and her entourage to Hungarian capital Budapest was forced to make an emergency landing in the Turkmenistan capital Ashgabat.

Three senior engineers of Biman were suspended after a three-strong probe committee submitted its findings on Dec 14.

Six more top officials had earlier been suspended.

Biman Director (Engineering and Management) MM Asaduzzaman started a case accusing the nine suspects under section 16 (c) of the Special Powers Act, 1974.

According to the FIR, proof has been found that the nine suspects “would collude in schemes that involved negligence towards machinery... to take part in sabotage”.

Police later arrested Nazmul Hoque and Shah Alam following investigation.

The final report

Engineer Nazmul Hoque and mechanic Shah Alam were assigned to check the oil pressure sensor inside the carrier. Nazmul Hoque entered the carrier thrice on that day but during interrogation, he told the investigators that he had entered once.

The committee found him suspicious but probe and witnesses suggested no sign of conspiracy or plot to carry out an act of sabotage.

People responsible for maintenance of airplanes should be more careful and alert, suggested the report. Any harm caused to the prime minister would have led to dire consequences for the nation.

“We call for acquittal of those chargesheeted in the case as the charges of sedition were not found true,” says the final report.