A second-grade student, Shahriar Shayan, has been killed after being run over by a school bus at the Jolsiri campus of Adamjee Cantonment Public School and College in Narayanganj’s Rupganj.
An allegation has been brought against the school authorities that they obtained the boy’s father’s signature on a no-objection letter stating that he would neither pursue legal action nor file a criminal case over his son’s death.
The incident occurred around 3:45pm on Tuesday on the institution’s campus in the Jolsiri Residential Project.
According to the allegation, Saju Ahmed was compelled to sign the document before his son’s body was handed over to him.
The allegation further claimed that several officials present at the school said its chairman Brig Gen Ariful Islam Khan and Principal Lt Col (retd) Md Ferdous Hasan communicated repeatedly regarding the matter following the accident.
The allegations state that the child’s body was still lying beneath the vehicle at the time.
Before being allowed to see his son’s body, Saju was reportedly taken to the principal’s office, where school authorities allegedly attempted to reach a financial settlement.
When that effort failed, the authorities allegedly told him that the body would not be released unless he signed the no-objection letter, warning that otherwise an autopsy would be conducted.
Rupganj Police Station Officer-in-charge (OC) AHM Salauddin said that Shayan died after being crushed under the wheels of one of the institution’s buses.
A police team visited the scene after the death, he said, adding that no complaint had been filed as of Wednesday.
The OC said the child’s body was handed over to his father around 7:30pm on Tuesday. The father declined to have an autopsy performed.
Meanwhile, investigative journalist Zulkarnain Saer on Wednesday shared a photograph on Facebook along with a post alleging that the child’s father had been made to sign a document stating that he would not file a case in connection with his son’s death.
The document shared in the post, dated 13 October, bears the signature of the child’s father, Saju Ahmed.
According to the no-objection letter, Saju acknowledged that his son died in an accident at the school’s Jolsiri campus and undertook not to initiate legal proceedings or file a criminal case over the incident. The document further states that he would take his son’s body home for burial and would not hold any individual personally responsible for the death.
Saju sent his son to school in good health that morning. He was later informed by phone that the child had suffered minor injuries and was asked to come to the school. However, upon arrival, he learned that his son was killed after being crushed under the wheels of a bus.
