Four railway officials get bail

A Dhaka court yesterday granted bail to four officials of Bangladesh Railway in connection with a case filed over the death of four-year-old Jihad in 2014.

The accused are: four engineers of Bangladesh Railway Saiful Islam, Nasir Uddin, Dipak Babu and Abu Zafar Bidyut.

Metropolitan magistrate Mazharul Islam gave the order after they surrendered before his court seeking bail. Earlier Jahangir Alam, a railway engineer, and Abdus Salam, a contractor, secured bail on different dates.

Jihad died after falling into a 17-inch diameter abandoned shaft, near his house at Bangladesh Railway Colony while playing with friends on December 26, 2014. His body was pulled out by a band of indomitable volunteers the following day, around 15 minutes after the fire service called off a near 23-hour search. On April 17 of 2015, Shahjahanpur Police Sub-inspector Abu Zafar pressed charges against Salam and Jahangir over the death. But on June 4 last year, victim's father filed a no-confidence (Naraji) petition against the investigation into the incident. Later, the court ordered further investigation and following the order detective on May 31 pressed charges against six including the four.