Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Wednesday acquitted four accused who were sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment by a trial court in a case filed over the 2014 death of a child after he fell into a deep abandoned shaft in the capital’s Shahjahanpur.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Ruhul Quddus and Justice ASM Abdul Mobin delivered the verdict allowing appeal petitions filed by the accused against their conviction.
The acquitted persons are: Abdus Salam alias Shafiqul Islam, proprietor of SR House, a contraction firm that was implementing a railway project in the area, and Jahangir Alam, senior sub-assistant engineer; Zafar Ahmed and Nasir Uddin, assistant engineers of Bangladesh Railways.
The Special Court of Judge Md Akhtaruzzman in Dhaka on February 26, 2017, delivered the verdict and sentenced the four persons to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment.
The trial court found them guilty of “gross-negligence and reluctance in discharging their duties” that had led to the pre-mature death of three-year-old Jihad. “If the convicts were more conscious about their duties, they could have saved the life of the victim,” said the judge as he pronounced the verdict.
The court also fined them Tk 2 lakh each, in default of which they will have to serve two more years in jail.
The trail court also acquitted two other assistant engineers, Saiful Islam and Dipak Kumar Bhowmik, as the allegations brought against them were not proved.
The three engineers were in charge of the area and SR House that was implementing a railway project left the shaft uncovered.
Jihad’s father had filed a case against Jahangir and Salam with Shahjahanpur Police Station the following day of the tragic incident.
