‘Our order must be implemented’

• “Green Line runs business of crores of taka. The company has not become bankrupt. It could have offered Russel a job as he is poor and a driver by profession.”

The High Court yesterday warned Green Line Paribahan, saying the court will see how the government facilitates the transport company if it resorts to unscrupulous means to violate the order over compensating Russel Sarker, who lost his leg after one of its buses ran him over in April last year.

“You can enforce strike or hartal; whatever you wish. But, our order must be implemented. The compensation will have to be paid in instalments to him [Russel]. We will have to take other measures if our order is violated,” the court said.

The HC bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader told this to Green Line’s lawyer Advocate Md Ozi Ullah, while hearing a writ petition filed in this regard.

The court told the lawyer, “You [Green Line] have shown enough impertinence… while we have showed a lot of patience. We cannot change our order, as Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld it.”

The company’s behaviour towards Russel is inhuman, the HC bench said.

“Green Line runs business of crores of taka. The company has not become bankrupt. It could have offered Russel a job as he is poor and a driver by profession,” the court said.

After the hearing, the HC bench ordered the transport company to pay Tk 5 lakh to Russel Sarker in monthly instalments to clear the remaining Tk 45 lakh compensation.

It will have to pay Tk 5 lakh by the seventh day of every month, and submit a report to the court by the 15th of the month after compliance, the court said.

At the beginning of the hearing, Advocate Ozi Ullah prayed to the court to reduce the amount of Tk 50 lakh compensation and sought the court’s order to pay Russel through instalments.

He, however, did not specify any amount.

Afterwards, Ozi Ullah told The Daily Star that the company has already paid Tk 5 lakh to Russel. Now it has to pay Tk 45 lakh more to Russel through monthly instalments as per the court order.

On April 4 last year, Russel, 26, a car driver, lost his leg from below the knee after he was knocked down by a Green Line bus near Mayor Hanif Flyover. An altercation broke out between Russel and the bus driver over rear-ending his car. As Russel chased the bus, the bus driver ran him over.

During hearing the same petition filed by SC lawyer Umme Kulsum Srity, the HC bench on March 31 this year ordered Green Line to pay Tk 50 lakh to Russel by April 3 and asked the company to inform it by April 4 after compliance.

The company handed Tk 5 lakh to Russel on April 10, petitioner’s lawyer Advocate Khandker Shamsul Haque Reza told The Daily Star. He also said Green Line had earlier given Tk 3 lakh to Russel for treatment.