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Published : 23 May 2026, 10:28 AM
Police have pressed charges against 12 individuals, including two Chinese nationals, over a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project accident that claimed five lives when a concrete girder crushed a private car in Dhaka's Uttara.
Uttara West Police Inspector Md Muniruzzaman, the investigating officer, submitted the chargesheet on Apr 30.
The next hearing is scheduled before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Zakir Hossain's court on Jun 30.
Those accused are Sun Lei and Xiang Xiao of Chinese contractor China Gezhouba Group; crane operator Alamin Hossain alias Hridoy; his assistant Rakib Hossain; signalmen Md Rubel and Afroz Mia; Safety Engineer Zulfikar Ali; Ifscon Engineering officials Iftekhayer and Azharul Islam Mithu; Tofazzal Hossain; and Biltrade Group officials Ruhul Amin Mridha and Monjurul Islam.
Muniruzzaman said negligence had been established against all 12. "We have submitted the chargesheet against all of them before the court.”
The two Chinese nationals are on the run and the investigating officer has applied for arrest warrants against them. The remaining 10 are out on bail.
On Aug 15, 2022, a crane on the BRT project in Uttara lost control while lifting a box girder weighing around 50 tonnes, sending it crashing onto a car on the road below and killing five members of a family inside. A newlywed couple was also injured.
The dead were the groom's father Rubel Mia, 60, the bride's mother Fahima, 40, her aunt Jharna, 28, and her two children Jannat, 6, and Zakaria, 2 -- the last four identified with their single names.
The chargesheet said Aug 15 was a national day of mourning and a public holiday, meaning no work was scheduled under the contractor's agreement and no government representative was present on site.
Despite this, the contractor pressed ahead without obtaining the required permission from the consultant, and no responsible official from the consulting firm was present at the site.
Muniruzzaman said in the chargesheet that Chinese company representatives Sun and Xiang decided to continue work on the holiday without any authorisation, calling workers including Alamin, Rakib, Rubel, Afroz, Zulfikar and Tofazzal to the site near Paradise Tower in Uttara by phone.
The findings indicate that the crane driver demonstrated extreme irresponsibility by letting his inexperienced assistant, Rakib, operate the machinery, classifying the act as a "negligent crime".
The suspects “completely ignored” the fact that the crane was positioned on soft, wet soil.
Safety Engineer Zulfikar and signalmen Rubel and Afroz also failed to erect barriers on both sides of the road while moving the 50-tonne girder from one side to the other, as required under safety rules.
Inspector Muniruzzaman wrote that the helper successfully loaded the first box girder onto a lorry, but the crane tilted and dropped the second girder directly onto the private car during the next lift.
This instantly killed five passengers while Hridoy, identified with a single name, and Riya suffered severe injuries before the suspects fled the scene.
Detailing organisational roles, the chargesheet outlined that the contractor was contractually bound to ensure comprehensive safety measures, while consultant firm SMEC International was responsible for vetting work schedules, method statements, traffic management, and safety compliance.
A government project director was also tasked with overarching supervision.
Following the impact, locals managed to pull the newlywed couple from the car window and rush them to a hospital, but the other five family members remained trapped under the girder for three hours before emergency teams recovered their bodies in the evening.
The next day, Riya’s maternal uncle Afran Mondal Babu filed a case accusing the contracting company, the crane operator, and project safety personnel of causing death through negligence.
"I filed the case against the company, but they issued the chargesheet against individuals," Babu told bdnews24.com, demanding the entire corporate entity be held accountable for its employees' actions.
"I lost five family members. There must be proper justice."
Expressing his reservations about the investigation findings, Babu added that he would consult his legal team before deciding whether to file a formal no-confidence petition against the chargesheet.
Defending their clients, Monjurul and Rakib’s lawyer Saiful Islam Jewel argued that Monjurul was not even at the site, claiming police simply picked him up from the Buildtrade Group office when they found nobody else there.
He added that Rakib was merely the assistant and was detained only because police could not initially find the primary driver, maintaining that neither had any involvement in the accident.
Lawyer for Tofazzal and Ruhul, Taibur Rahman Tuhin, said his clients had done nothing wrong. "Nothing can be proved against them anywhere. If a Chinese company brings in a crane operator from somewhere else and operates the crane, what negligence do they have?”
“They are in no way connected to what happened. But since a chargesheet has been filed, we will do what needs to be done legally," he said.
