Police yesterday arrested the unlicensed driver, responsible for the July 11 truck plunge that killed 40 people, mostly school children, in Mirsarai of Chittagong.
A team from Kawnia Police Station of Barisal arrested the truck driver, Jasimuddin alias Mofiz, from a house in Batna village of the district around 8:45am.
Following the arrest, he admitted to the police that he was driving the truck but denied talking over his cellphone when the accident happened.
A number of students who survived the tragedy earlier said he was talking over the phone at that time.
“I finished talking over the phone moments before the accident. And the truck was not at a high speed either. The accident occurred as I tried to make way for a vehicle coming from the opposite direction,” Syed Toufiqueuddin Ahmed, commissioner of Barisal Metropolitan Police, quoted Mofiz as saying.
Earlier, The Daily Star learnt that he has been a farmer most of his life and he did not have a driving licence. Aged around 40, he was a helper of the truck owned by Haji Rice Mill in Chittagong.
“He was not allowed to drive on highways or go on long drives as he is not the driver. He drives the vehicle when we need to take something not very far away,” Habib, head operator of the mill, told The Daily Star after the accident.
But Mofiz yesterday claimed to have been a driver for over 20 years but could not show his driving licence.
According to his brother-in-law Harun-ar-Rashid, he managed a fake licence for Tk 6,000-7,000.
Mofiz also clamed that he wanted to join the rescue operation following the plunge but locals told him to flee.
But Md Alamgir, one of the survivors, said Mofiz escaped through the window as soon as the accident happened.
“Had he not escaped, more lives could have been saved,” said Alamgir, adding that the driver ignored his request to join the rescue effort.
Earlier, Mirsarai police learnt the whereabouts of Mofiz from his niece Nurunnahar Panna living in Chittagong, said Iftekher Hassan, officer-in-charge of Mirsarai Police Station.
They then requested Kawnia police to arrest Mofiz, who was hiding at a relative’s house at Batna.
Meanwhile, the headmasters of Abu Torab Bahumukhi High School and Abu Torab Government Primary School, where most of the victims studied, demanded exemplary punishment of Mofiz and the truck owner, who is still on the run.
-With The Daily Star input
