Case filed against two gatemen over Cumilla bus-train crash that killed 12

A woman injured in the collision between a train and a bus in Cumilla’s Padua has filed a case accusing two gatemen over the incident that left 12 people dead.

Shefali Akhter filed the case at Laksam Railway Police Station, according to Officer-in-Charge (OC) Jashim Uddin.

The two suspects in the case are Paduar Bazar Rail Crossing gatemen Helal Uddin and Mehedy Hasan.

Shefali, the plaintiff in the case, is the aunt of Sohel Rana, who was killed in the accident. She hails from Cumilla’s Laksam. She and her nephew were on the bus involved in the crash.

Sohel's wife and daughter, who were also injured in the same accident, are undergoing treatment at a hospital in Dhaka.

Citing the case, police said that it had been filed under Section 304 (A) of the Penal Code, which deals with “death due to negligence”.

The case states that Sohel, an expatriate living in Malaysia, had returned to his home in Chuadanga for Eid. From there, he lost his life in an accident at a railway crossing while visiting his aunt's house in Cumilla on Eid day.

A total of 12 people were killed and eight others injured when a Dhaka Mail train smashed into a Mamun Special bus, travelling from Chuadanga to Lakshmipur, after it had driven onto the railway tracks at the Paduar Bazar Railway Crossing on Saturday. 

After the collision, the bus was dragged about a kilometre by the train.

Those killed in the crash have been identified as Laizu Akhtar, 26, from Jashore and her two daughters, Khadija, 6, and Mariam, 3; Juhad Biswas, 24, from Jhenaidah; Sayeed, 9, from Lakshmipur's Sadar Upazila; Tajul Islam, 67, from Chandpur; Sirajul Islam, 70, from Jashore, and his wife Kohinoor Begum, 55; Babul Chowdhury, 55, from Noakhali; Fochiar Rahman, 26, from Magura; Sohel Rana, 25, from Chuadanga; and Nazrul Islam Raihan, 45, from Noakhali.