He blames microbus driver
The driver of the bus that killed five persons, including filmmaker Tareque Masud and media personality Ashfaque Munier Mishuk, in Manikganj on Saturday was arrested yesterday from Gangni upazila of Meherpur.
A team of Detective Branch (DB) of Police from Dhaka in cooperation with Meherpur DB picked up bus driver Jamir Uddin, 50, from Chougachha village around 12:30am and brought him to Dhaka in the morning.
Senior Assistant Commissioner of DB Mashiur Rahman, who led the arrest, told The Daily Star, “Jamir was hiding in the residence of a sister of his second wife in a bid to escape to India.”
The driver was yesterday produced before a press briefing at the DB headquarters on Minto Road where he claimed himself innocent and blamed the driver of the microbus, which collided head-on with his bus, for the accident.
He said, “I was on my way to Aricha from Dhaka and it was raining heavily. When I spotted the microbus coming from the opposite direction I repeatedly honked the horn and brought down the speed of the bus to 30-40 kilometres an hour to avoid collision. But the driver of the microbus was driving rashly on the wrong side of the road.”
He claimed that he wanted to surrender immediately but fled instead fearing mob beating. From Joka, the accident spot, he went to Chapainawabganj and later to Meherpur, Jamir Uddin added.
He also claimed that he has a valid driving licence and has been driving buses for 20 years. He has been serving Chuadanga Deluxe for the last one year.
“Jamir had been driving for 20 hours non-stop without any sleep and that might have made him disorientated,” said Mashiur Rahman.
The senior assistant commissioner of DB also said that Jamir would be handed over to Manikganj police as a murder case has been filed with Ghior Police Station after the accident on August 13.
Tareque, his production crew Wasim and Jamal, Mishuk, and microbus driver Mostafizur Rahman were killed on Saturday when the Chuadanga-bound bus collided head-on with their microbus on the Dhaka-Aricha highway at Ghior in Manikganj.
Tareque’s wife Catherine Masud, painter Dhali Al Mamun, his wife Dilara Zaman Jolly and production staff Saidul Islam sustained injuries in the accident.
The team was going to Manikganj town to meet the district deputy commissioner for permission to shoot for Tareque’s latest project “Kagojer Phool” after visiting a shooting spot in Shibalaya upazila.
-With The Daily Star input
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