Who was driving the car, police or arrestee?

The car that plunged into a roadside pond on Monday, killing two police sub-inspectors in Narayanganj, was seized earlier that day with 42,000 yaba pills.

An assistant sub-inspector was injured and a person, arrested with the pills, fled after the accident at Dattapara around 6:30pm in Sonargaon upazila. The incident created a huge sensation, since police cannot use vehicles seized with narcotics without court directive.

Although police said one of the officers was driving the seized car, some media reported that the arrestee was driving it. However, The Daily Star could not verify the claim.

Zaidul Alam, SP of Narayanganj, said the police officials made a mistake. The deceased are sub-inspectors Shariful Islam (35) and Kazi Saleh of Sonargaon Police Station. The injured ASI Rafiqul Islam was undergoing treatment at Rajarbagh Police Hospital in Dhaka.

The three had arrested one Alamgir, who was coming from Cox's Bazar with the yaba pills, on Meghna Bridge on Monday morning. Police seized his car and drove it with the accused to the office of the SP for a press briefing, said SP Zaidul.

After the briefing, they were returning to Sonargaon Police Station, and SI Shariful was driving the car, the official said. The vehicle fell into a pond while giving way to another car near the station, said Mostafizur Rahman, additional superintendent of police in Narayanganj.

The accused fled the scene immediately after locals rescued them by breaking the car's window, said SP Zaidul. "We are trying to arrest him [the accused]."

Replying to a query as to why the accused was being taken to a police station in the seized car, the SP said, "It was not the right thing to do. It was a mistake."