‘Conductor drove Suprobhat bus following owner’s directive’

The owner of Suprobhat Paribahan bus that ran over and killed university student Abrar Ahmed Chowdhury on March 19 today confessed to a magistrate that as per his direction the conductor was steering the bus.

The owner Nani Gopal Sarker confessed to the magistrate that his conductor Yasin Arafat informed him that passengers and pedestrians caught bus driver Sirajul Islam and handed him over to police in the capital’s Shahjadpur after the vehicle had hit and injured a college girl in the morning of March 19.

After the accident, the bus was parked by the road there. Bus conductor Yasin Arafat then informed him (Gopal) of the matter over phone and said agitated locals might torch the bus. Thereafter, Gopal told him to take the vehicle to a safer place.

As instructed, Yasin, who had no driving licence, took the wheel and the bus ran over and killed Abrar near the gate of Bashundhara Residential Area. His conductor committed the offence only to flee the scene with the bus, said Gopal in his confessional statement. 

Gopal also confessed that driver Sirajul began his trip from Sadarghat area around 5:45am on March 19 and hit Synthia Islam Mukta, 20, a student of Mirpur Ideal Girls’ Laboratory Institute, at Banshtala in Shahjadpur.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sadbir Yasin Ahsan Chowdhury recorded Gopal’s confessional statement after DB Inspector Kazi Shariful Islam, also investigation officer of the case, produced him before the court on expiry of his three-day remand.

The metropolitan magistrate also ordered to send Gopal to jail after recording his statement at his chamber.

A DB team arrested Gopal around 6:30pm on April 4 from the capital’s Mugda and the next day he was placed on a three-day remand.

Earlier on different dates, driver Sirajul, conductor Yasin and helper Mohammad Ibrahim had given statements admitting their guilt before the same magistrate.

Detectives arrested conductor Yasin and bus helper Md Ibrahim from separate places on March 27, a week after Abrar’s father Brig Gen (retd) Arif Ahmed Chowdhury filed a case with Gulshan Police Station.