The High Court on Tuesday directed the police to immediately arrest Sagufta Group’s managing director Khaled Jewel Mollah and director Waliq Mollah in connection with the death of a student who was killed when a brick fell on his head, reportedly from the company’s high-rise that is under construction on Panthapath.
The bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore also asked the building’s assistant contractor, Mohammad Osman Ali, and the officers-in-charge of the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar and Pallabi thanas to appear before it on July 28 to explain their actions after the death of Habibur Rahman Munna who appeared in this year’s HSC examinations from Tejgaon College.
The court, however, exempted the company’s chairman, Nur Mohammad Mollah, from being presence during the next hearing.
The court passed the order for arresting Khaled and Waliq after the hearing in the afternoon which was attended by the company’s chairman and Khaled in response to its earlier order, passed on July 19.
Sher-e-Bangla Nagar thana’s OC, Syed Ziauzzzaman, told New Age in the afternoon, ‘I am unaware of the court’s order as I am now attending a training course at the police headquarters.’
Pallabi thana’s OC, Mohammad Shahbuddin, said, ‘I have just heard from the media that the High Court has asked me to appear before it and I will go to the court on time.’
In the morning the court kept the chairman and MD standing during the hearing and rebuked them for not taking the appropriate safety measures which should be taken by builders, especially in a busy area like the Panthapath.
Senior lawyer Anisul Huq defended the company.
The court rebuked the police in their absence, pointing out that they have yet to arrest anyone of the people who were accused in the case of the student’s death.
On July 19 the court issued a rule suo moto after deputy attorney general ABM Altaf Hossain drew its attention to reports published in various newspapers of the college student who was killed by a falling brick on July 16.
The court also directed the authorities concerned to explain in two weeks why the company should not be directed to pay adequate compensation to the family of the deceased.
Onlookers and family members said that Munna was passing by the 15-storied commercial and residential building, Sagufta De’ Khan, being constructed on 77, Panthapath, when the brick fell on his head.
-With New Age input
