‘Case names innocent driver, not the real culprit’

In a case filed over the death of a construction worker in the Baridhara road crash, the real offender has been shielded by the implication of an innocent driver, said sources.
In the case filed at Gulshan police station on Wednesday, Akash Marak, a private car driver employed by the real offender’s family, has been named as the accused.
Although the deceased’s brother Moktadir Islam is the complainant, the case statement is said to have been written by police, according to sources.
On Tuesday afternoon, a private car veered off the road and ran over the worker, Mehedi Hasan, 24, at the Baridhara Diplomatic Zone in the capital. The case statement over the incident says Akash, who hails from Domar in Nilphamari district and is currently at large, was driving recklessly when he struck Hasan, causing fatal injuries to his head, chest and back.
According to CCTV footage of the incident, however, the car was being driven by a teenager, an O-Level student at an English-medium school in Gulshan.
Bystanders caught the teenager — the son of a captain with Biman Bangladesh Airlines — and handed him over to police, who released him later.
The injured worker was rushed to Kurmitola General Hospital, where doctors on duty pronounced him dead the same day. The CCTV footage of the crash shows the car striking a street-light post after hitting Hasan and coming to a stop.
Two people then got out of the vehicle: a teenager in a black T-shirt from the driver’s side, and a middle-aged man in a shirt from the other side.
As people rushed to the scene, both stood beside the car before the teenager slipped away. He was later caught by angry members of the public.
Inspector Ismail Hossain of Gulshan police station said the victim’s brother had named Akash as the accused and had not mentioned the teenager. The plaintiff of the case could not be contacted.