Driver arrested over Brac University student’s death

Police have arrested the covered van driver who reportedly ran over Brac University student Fahmida Haque Labannya in Dhaka's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar last week.

Tejgaon Division Deputy Commissioner (DC) Biplob Kumar Sarker confirmed the matter at a press briefing held at Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Tejgaon Division DC office on Sunday.

Labannya, 21, was a passenger on a ride-sharing motorcycle when she fell off and was run over by a covered van in front of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar around 12pm on Thursday. She died on the way to hospital.

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Biplob said: “Based on closed-circuit camera footage, the covered van driver, Anisur Rahman, was arrested from Ashulia on April 27. We also picked up the covered van from that area.

“We think the Uber rider and the van driver were both reckless. The accident happened as the covered van was much faster and overtook the bike.”

Sumon, the rider of the bike, was also detained for questioning from Mohammadpur on April 26.

Also Read- Motorcyclist questioned over death of BracU student

The DC said all personal information the rider provided on the ride-sharing app was incorrect.

"The home address that he gave to Uber was incorrect. His bKash number was wrong too."

He also said that the ride-sharing service was uncooperative with the police.

Uber Senior Manager Ali Armanur Rahman was present at the press briefing. But he said he wass "not capable" of responding to the allegations. 

Labannya, daughter of Imdadul Haque of Mymensingh, was a third-year computer science and engineering student at BracU and had been living in Shyamoli.