Jihad’s death: 4 jailed for 10 years

A special court in Dhaka jailed four people for 10 years in a case filed over the death of four-year-old Jihad, who died after falling into a deep well in Dhaka’s Shahjahanpur area in 2014.

Judge Md Akhtaruzzaman of the Dhaka’s Special Judge Court-5 passed the order on Sunday.

The court also fined them Tk 2 lakh each, in default of which they will have to suffer two years more in jail.

The convicts are: Jahangir Alam, Senior Assistant Engineer of railways, Nasir Uddin, Assistant Engineer, Shafiqul Islam, proprietor and Jafor Ahmed Shaki, Electrician.

Two other assistant engineers - Saiful Islam and Dipan Kumar Bhowmik - were acquitted of the charges as the allegations brought against them were not proved.

It is mentionable that, Jihad fell into an abandoned deep tube-well shaft, 17 inches in diameter, near his house inside the colony while playing with his friends on December 26, 2014.

His body was pulled out by volunteers around 15 minutes after the fire service called off a near 23-hour search.
On April 17, 2015, SI Abu Zafar, who was investigating the case, submitted a charge sheet against Jahangir and Salam. But on June 4, Jihad’s father filed a no-confidence petition against the charge sheet.

Later, the court ordered further probe into his death. Following the court order, SI Mizanur Rahman of the Detective Branch of police submitted a fresh charge sheet against the six accused on March 31, 2016.