‘Ferry delayed for VIP’: Body to probe boy’s death in ambulance
The boy breathed his last due to excessive bleeding in the brain as the ambulance was waiting on the ferry
The Shipping Ministry on Monday opened a probe into the death of a school student in an ambulance on a ferry that was allegedly forced to wait for three hours for a VIP’s arrival.
Headed by Shahnawaz Dilruba Khan, a joint secretary at the ministry, the two-member panel will submit its report within the next seven working days.
Shah Habibur Rahman, a deputy secretary of the Shipping Ministry, is the other member of the committee.
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The ministry set up the committee acting upon media reports that the ferry was delayed for a joint secretary of the ministry.
The ministry, meanwhile, turned down the allegations, saying, “None from the Shipping Ministry availed the ferry on the Kanthalbari-Shimulia route on that day.”
What happened?
Titas Ghosh, 11, a sixth-grader at Kalia Pilot Secondary School in Narail, was injured in a road accident.
His family was taking him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for better treatment by an ambulance on Sunday night.
The boy breathed his last due to excessive bleeding in the brain as the ambulance was waiting on the ferry.
The family alleged that the ferry was barred from setting off its journey as the deputy commissioner of the district ordered the authorities to keep the ferry waiting for an additional secretary and a deputy secretary.
The family members of Titas also said they had repeatedly requested the ferry authorities to start it but they did not pay heed to their pleas.
It is alleged that the ferry was waiting for Abdus Sabur Mondal, an additional secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, despite requests from passengers.
