Govt must pay Tk 20 lakh to Jihad’s family

The Supreme Court today refused to stay a High Court verdict that directed the authorities concerned to pay Tk 20 lakh as compensation to the parents of Jihad, a four-year-old child who died falling down a 300-foot well shaft in Dhaka's Shahjahanpur in 2014.

Therefore, Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence and the railway department have to pay Tk 20 lakh to the parents by January 22 next year as they have received the full text of the HC verdict on October 22, said Barrister Md Abdul Halim, who moved a petition before the HC in 2015 seeking compensation for the victim’s family.

A chamber judge of Appellate Division, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, sent a leave to appeal petition filed by the Fire Service and Civil Defense challenging the HC verdict to the full bench of the apex court.

The chamber judge also fixed February 5 next year for hearing the leave to appeal petition.

Barrister Halim told The Daily Star that the HC verdict will remain enforced until further order of the SC.

Jihad fell into an unprotected well shaft while playing with other children in Shahjahanpur Railway Colony on December 26, 2014.

His body was pulled out by a group of volunteers the following day, shortly after the government agencies called off the rescue bid, saying there was no sign of the boy inside the well.

On February 26 this year, a Dhaka court sentenced four people, including three engineers of Bangladesh Railway, to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment in a case filed over the death of Jihad.

The convicts are Abdus Salam alias Shafiqul Islam, proprietor of SR House, a contractor firm that was implementing a railway project in the area, and Jahangir Alam, senior sub-assistant engineer; and Zafar Ahmed and Nasir Uddin, assistant engineers of Bangladesh Railway.

On October 8, the HC released the full text of the verdict which ordered the compensation.

Bangladesh Railway and Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence will pay Tk 10 lakh each within 90 days, HC said in the verdict.