Court orders arrest of owners, 4 others

The Shipping Court in Dhaka issued an arrest warrant on Sunday for eight people, including four owners of MV Obhijan-10 launch that caught fire on Sugandha River early Friday, killing at least 41 people.

The launch owners are Md Ham Jalal Sheikh, Md Shamim Ahmed, Md Rasel Ahmed and Ferdous Hasan Rabby. The four others are launch in-charge master Md Reaz Shikder, in-charge helmsman Md Masum Billah, second master Khalilur Rahman and second helmsman Abul Kalam.

Judge Jaynab Begum issued the warrant after Shipping Department’s Chief Inspector Md Shafiqur Rahman filed a case. Rahman told The Business Post that they cancelled licenses of the people named in the case and scrapped the launch’s fitness certificate.

The eight men have been accused of carrying flammable items like gas and huge oil in an unsafe manner which caused the incident.

Earlier on Saturday, Jhalakathi Sadar Police Station’s Officer-in-Charge Khalilur Rahman said village police member Jahangir Hossain had filed an unnatural death case after the incident.

Meanwhile, another case was filed with Barguna Chief Judicial Magistrate Court on Sunday against the owner of MV Obhijan-10 Hamjalal Sheikh and 24 others. Advocate Nazmul Islam Nasir, chairman of Baliatoli union parisahd of Barguna, is the plaintiff.

Barguna Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Mahbub Alam accepted the case and asked the police station concerned to take the complaint as a ‘First Information Report’, said the court’s administrative official Akhter Hossain.

“There was negligence on part of the launch owner and staff leading to the fire, deaths and damage,” Nasir said.

Meanwhile, search operations continued for the third consecutive day on the Sugandha River. Fire service and Coast Guard divers are still looking for the missing people, said OC Khalilur.

No new body was recovered from the river till the filing of this report around 11am.

The blaze broke out at around 3am on Friday on the Barguna-bound launch carrying some 800 passengers from Dhaka. The death toll climbed to 41 on Saturday. More than 70 people suffered burn injuries, many of them have been hospitalised.