Authorities were not negligent for BM depot explosion: Police

Terming the deadly explosion at the BM Container Depot an accident, the police have said the authorities concerned were not negligent for the incident that took place on June 4 last year in Sitakunda upazila of Chattogram, claiming 51 lives.

Chattogram district Detective Branch (DB) of police said this in the final report of a case filed against eight officials of the depot, recommending acquitting all of the accused.

The DB police submitted the final report to the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court of Chattogram on May 2.

Confirming the matter, the court’s Inspector Jaker Hossain Mahmud said a hearing on the final report is likely to be held on Monday.

Earlier, a probe body in its report said owners and supervisors cannot avoid liability for the BM depot incident.

Chattogram DB police chief Nur Mohammad on Friday said the investigation did not find that the incident was caused by sabotage or negligence.

“The explosion [at the depot] is an accident. Negligence of the owner or other employees was not found in it,” he added.

On June 4 last year, 51 people were killed and over 200 others injured in the explosion and fire at the BM Container Depot. Sitakunda police Sub-Inspector Ashraf Siddiki filed a case against eight depot officials on June 7.

The accused are — Nazmul Akter Khan, general manager, Nurul Akter Khan, deputy general manager (operations), Khaledur Rahman, manager (admin), Abbas Ullah, assistant admin officer, Nasir Uddin, senior executive (admin), Abdul Aziz, assistant manager, Saiful Islam and Nazrul Islam.