Sunamganj land office SUV kills college employee in Moulvibazar

An executive magistrate’s motor vehicle ran over and killed a college employee on Wednesday at Rajnagar upazila in Moulvibazar.

The deceased, Ashish Kumar Das, 55, son of Ashutosh Das, was a support staff member of the physics department at Government Madan Mohan College in Sylhet.

Ashish Kumar was from Baurbhag village at Moulvibazar sadar upazila, the police said.

The incident happened when the driver of the vehicle, a sport utility vehicle belonging to the Sunamganj land office, was returning after dropping assistant commissioner for land Sanjay Ghosh of Chhatak upazila in the district and also an executive magistrate, at a rail station, said the police.

They said that Sanjay Ghosh was supposed to go to Dhaka from Sylhet Railway Station by intercity train Kalni Express at 6:15am Wednesday, but failed to catch the train as he reached the station late.

His driver then took him to Sreemangal Railway Station in Moulvibazar, around 80 kilometres from Sylhet, and dropped him there in the morning to catch Kalni Express that was scheduled to make a stop there.

The driver, Albab Hossain, during his return to Sylhet, hit Ashish Kumar’s motorcycle in Chelarpar area on Sylhet-Fenchuganj-Rajnagar road at around 9:30am, leaving the motorcyclist critically injured, the police said.

Ashish was going to his village home in Moulvibazar sadar upazila to celebrate Durga Puja, largest religious festival of Hindu community, along with his family members, his relatives said.

Rajnagar police officer-in-charge Md Mobarak Hossain told that they reached the spot on information and detained the SUV driver Albab Hossain.

‘Before the police had reached the spot local people took critically injured Ashish to Fenchuganj Upazila Health Complex. Later, the victim was referred to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital. The attending doctor at Osmani declared him dead on arrival,’ he said.

The police officer said that they seized both the SUV and the motorcycle.

‘The Chhatak upazila nirbahi officer, however, took away driver Albab Hossain from the police custody on Wednesday evening as no complaint was filed with the police station in this regard,’ the OC said on Thursday afternoon, adding that the UNO said that he would return the driver to the police station if necessary.

Contacted over mobile phone on Thursday afternoon, Chhatak UNO Md Tarikul Islam told New Age that he was sick and did not feel well enough to talk.

‘I’ll call you back within minutes,’ he said, but never called back till Thursday evening.

Chhatak assistant commissioner Sanjay Ghosh also did not receive New Age phone calls for comments.

Requesting anonymity, a relative of the victim told New Age that Ashish’s family was not interested in filing a case, believing that they would not get justice, while would face pressure from the local administration instead.

‘Haven’t you seen the jeep [SUV] driver has already been released from the police custody? How could have it been possible at all?’ he questioned.

Repeated attempts to contact with the Ashish’s family using his phone number went unanswered.