Six charged over Jihad’s death

The indicted are engineers Md Saiful Islam, Md Nasir Uddin, Dipak Kumar Bhowmik, Zafar Ahamed Shaki and Jahangir Alam and a contractor named Shafiqul Islam alias Abdus Salam. Judge Md Akhtaruzzaman of Dhaka Special Judges Court 5 framed the charges against the accused rejecting their discharge petitions. All six accused were on bail when they appeared before the court during the proceedings. They pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after the court read out the charges against them. The court fixed October 18 for starting the deposition of prosecution witnesses. According to the case, on December 26, 2014, Jihad died after falling into an abandoned shaft, 17 inches in diameter, near his house at Bangladesh Railway Colony in Shahjahanpur while playing. His body was pulled out by volunteers the following day, around 15 minutes after the fire service called off a near 23-hour search. On April 17, 2015, SI Abu Zafar, who was investigating the case, submitted a charge sheet against Jahangir and Salam. But on June 4, Jihad’s father filed a no-confidence petition against the investigation report. Later, the court ordered further probe into his death. Following the court order, SI Mizanur Rahman of the Detective Branch of police submitted a charge sheet against the six accused on March 31, 2016.