HC acquits 4 suspects over child's death in abandoned well

The High Court has exonerated four people from charges over the death of 4-year-old boy Jihad, who died after falling into an unsealed deep tube-well of a Bangladesh Railway project in Dhaka's Shahjahanpur in 2014.

The four are Bangladesh Railway's Senior Sub-Assistant Engineer Jahangir Alam, who was in charge of the project, the contractor firm JSR’s owner Abdus Salam, Assistant Engineer Md Nasir Uddin and Electric Engineer Abu Zafar Ahmed Shakir.

A judge’s court in Dhaka had sentenced them to 10 years in jail and fined them two years ago on charges of causing the boy's death through neglect of duty.

The High Court panel of Justice Md Ruhul Quddus and Justice ASM Abdul Mobin acquitted them of the charges on Wednesday after accepting their appeal.

The section of the law, under which the judge’s court handed the accused the 10-year sentence, has five years of jail term as maximum punishment, the High Court observed.

It also said the charges of negligence of duty could not be proved specifically against the defendants because it was not their responsibility to keep the pipe sealed.

The High Court also noted that the family of the victim had received compensation from the authorities.

Deputy Attorney General Md Aminul Islam represented the state in the hearing while lawyers Mansurul Haque Chowdhury, SM Shahjahan, M Sarwar Ahmed, Anwarul Islam Shahin and M Ali Mortuza stood for the appellants.

Aminul said the state will challenge the High Court verdict in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

Jihad

On Dec 26, 2014, Jihad fell into the 14-inch wide opening of deep tube-well, which was kept unsealed even after it was abandoned.

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

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

His parents Nasir Uddin Fakir and mother Khadiza Begum had received Tk 2 million in compensation from the Bangladesh Railway, and Fire Service and Civil Defence following a Supreme Court order in 2018.

Five railway engineers and the contractor, who had set up the well, had been charged with negligence of duty causing the death in a case started by Nasir.

Dhaka's Fifth Special Judge Md Akhaturazzam on Feb 26, 2017 convicted four of the accused but acquitted assistant engineers Dipak Kumar Bhoumik and Md Saiful Islam.