Staff Reporter :
The probe committee found negligence of three ferry ghat officials, including the ferry ghat manager Salam Hossain, for the death of 12-year patient Titash Ghosh for not allowing the ambulance carrying him to get into the ferry at the Kathalbari Ghat, Madaripur, as it was waiting for a Joint Secretary.
The two others are ferry ghat assistants Khokan Miah and Feroj Alam.
Deputy Attorney General Abdullah Al Mahmud Bashar on Thursday said that a report had been submitted in the High Court in this regard. The probe committee did not find any fault of the Joint Secretary Abdus Sabur Mondal. The report recommended that the ferry should not be delayed in any way for any individual.
The report was prepared by three high officials of the government headed by Cabinet Division’s Additional Secretary Md Rezaul Ahsan.
The report may be placed in the High Court Bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader with the end of the ongoing vacation of the Supreme Court.
Earlier on July 31, 2019 the same HC Bench directed the Public Administration Secretary for appointing an officer, not below the rank of Additional Secretary, to conduct an enquiry into the incident and submit the report in this court in three weeks.
The HC Bench passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by a rights organisation, Legal Support and People’s Rights, seeking necessary order.
Twelve-year old Titash Ghosh, a student of Kalia Pilot Secondary School in Narail, was critically injured in a motorbike accident in the district on July 24.
A day later, doctors of a local hospital referred him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) for an emergency operation.
The family, along with the 12-year-old boy, was coming to Dhaka by an ambulance, which arrived at the Kathalbari ferry ghat in Madaripur, around 8:00 pm on July 25.
A ferry called “Ferry Cumilla” was reportedly already on the pontoon, which had its gate closed and was not loading vehicles. The family said that the ferry, on which the ambulance carrying Titash was on, delayed loading vehicles for three hours while waiting for a joint secretary.
Ferry authorities said that they were waiting for the arrival of Abdus Sabur Mondal, a Joint Secretary level official at the Prime Minister’s Office.
The ambulance was stuck on the pontoon and could not be reversed or shifted to another because of the queues of vehicles in front and behind it. The ferry started loading vehicles around 10:20 pm when the authorities learnt that the high official was close to the terminal.
Around 11:00 pm, the official arrived and the ferry started sailing. Titash died on the ferry, family sources said.
