'Coming home'
Topu told his wife by phone minutes before being hit and killed by police vehicle plying wrong side of road
The youth was quite popular among his peers.
His life was cut short after a police vehicle going the wrong way ran him over on his motorcycle in the city's Kakoli area on Monday.
The father of a four-month-old boy, Riazuddin Topu secured a job at a mobile phone company only two weeks ago.
The 26-year-old was returning to his Purbo Tejturibazar home after attending a company event at Radisson Blu Hotel, said his cousin Afsana Afroz.
“Topu called his wife around 3:00pm to inform her that he was on his way home,” she added.
After hearing about the incident around 3:45pm, some family members rushed to Kurmitola General Hospital, only to find Topu dead.
The pillion passenger, a colleague of Topu, was also injured in the crash. Police had sent the two bikers to the hospital.
Meanwhile, protesting the death of Topu, a final year BBA student at ASA University, several hundred students of the institution blocked
part of Mirpur Road in front of their Shyamoli campus yesterday. The demonstration obstructed traffic in the area for about two hours.
The agitating students demanded the government ensure exemplary punishment for those responsible for the accident and Topu's family get compensations.
Protestors withdrew the blockade around 2:00pm after receiving assurances from local police of meeting their demands. Topu's friend Rashidul Islam said they will again take to the street on Saturday morning if their demands were not met.
Humaira Parvin, additional deputy commissioner of traffic (North) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, claimed the police vehicle was making a U-turn on the road when it hit the bike to avoid colliding with a speeding covered van.
Incensed, locals blocked the road in Kakoli for sometime and vandalised the police minibus. Cops later brought the situation under control.
This paper ran several stories on police's failure to stop vehicles on the wrong side of city streets. The authorities concerned repeatedly assured that they would stop such violation of traffic rules.
“This time the policemen themselves flouted the rules and caused the death of a youth,” said Topu's friend Sohel.
Topu would love to make friends and lend his hand to help those in need, he added.
Maruf Hossain Sarder, deputy commissioner (media) of DMP, said they arrested the driver and seized the minibus.
Asked whether the on-duty traffic police neglected their duties, he said the DMP formed a committee headed by an assistant commissioner of the traffic division to probe the incident.
Meanwhile, the victim's body was taken to his maternal grandfather's house in Shalna of Gazipur for burial after holding a namaz-e-janaza at a playground near his city home.
Afsana said they didn't file any case until yesterday afternoon. However, Inspector (investigation) Wahiduzzaman of Banani Police Station claimed the victim's family filed a case early yesterday.
However, the inspector could not remember the names of the accused.
Topu's colleague was undergoing treatment at the hospital yesterday.