Jihad death: 5 railway engineers among 6 indicted

A Dhaka court today framed charges against six people including five engineers of Bangladesh Railway for the death of a four-year-old boy, Jihad, who died after falling into a deep well in Dhaka’s Shahjahanpur area in 2014.

The five engineers are Saiful Islam, Nasir Uddin, Dipak Babu, Abu Zafar Bidyut and Jahangir Alam while other accused is a contractor named Abdus Salam.

Judge Md Akhtaruzzaman of the Special Judge Court-5 passed the order after reading out the charges before all the accused, now on bail. They however pleaded not guilty and demanded justice.

The court fixed October 18 for starting the trial of the case.

On December 26, 2014, Jihad died after falling into a 17-inch diameter abandoned shaft, near his house at Bangladesh Railway Colony in Dhaka's Shahjahanpur while playing with friends. 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 Jahangir and Salam 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. As per the order, detectives on May 31 again pressed charges this time against the six.