Families receive bodies of Kolkata crash victims

India’s Border Security Force has handed over the bodies of two Bangladeshis killed in a car crash in Kolkata to their families at the Benapole checkpoint.

Their mortal remains were handed over at 8:30am on Sunday at the end of immigration formalities between the two countries, said Masum Billah, immigration police inspector at Benapole. 

Grameenphone Retail Support Manager Kazi Md Mainul Alam, 36, and Citibank Dhanmondi Branch Senior Officer Farhana Islam Tania, 28, were killed in a car crash at 2am on Saturday near Kolkata Loudon Street.

Mainul, his cousin Shafi, and Tania took shelter under a shed outside a traffic police outpost near Shakespeare Sarani Police Station in Kolkata to escape the rain, according to reports.

A Jaguar car rammed into them after hitting a Mercedes Benz sedan, the Indian media said.

The bodies were taken to a local hospital where the doctors declared Mainul and Tania dead.

Mainul was in Kolkata for eye treatment, the Hindustan Times reported citing an official at the Bangladesh deputy high commission in Kolkata.

Police arrested the driver of the Jaguar car, Arsalan Parvez, who belongs to a well-known Kolkata family which runs a popular restaurant chain - Arsalan.

He is a student at Edinburgh and was home for holidays, according to NDTV.

The Jaguar was speeding at 100 km/h at the time of the accident and police have confirmed that Parvez was in the driver’s seat, according to the Anandabazar.