A controversial out-of-court settlement has been reached following the death of a 24-year-old construction worker, who was fatally struck by a speeding car whilst resting on a pavement in Dhaka’s affluent Baridhara neighbourhood.
The incident occurred around 5:00 pm on Tuesday, 22nd September, along Road No. 1 within Baridhara’s Diplomatic Security Zone. The victim, Mehedi Hasan Mim, who was speech- and hearing-impaired, was taking a brief respite on the footpath near an under-construction site when a private motor vehicle lost control, mounted the curb, and ran over him. Mim died at the scene.
Bystanders immediately detained the individual in the driver’s seat and handed him over to local authorities. Police initially released the suspect into his family’s custody following brief questioning. However, as CCTV footage and video clips of the crash circulated widely across social media, investigators verified that the vehicle was being driven by 17-year-old Azan Ali Sharif, an ‘O’ Level student at an English-medium school in Gulshan. The vehicle involved was registered under his mother’s name.
The initial police case did not list Sharif as the driver, naming instead an individual identified as Akash Mark. The emergence of the surveillance footage raised sharp public concerns regarding procedural transparency and early investigative steps, prompting police to arrest Sharif on Wednesday and impound the motor vehicle. Efforts remain ongoing to apprehend Mark.
During proceedings on Thursday, 24th September, at the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-8 in Dhaka, presided over by Judge Md Abdul Moktadir, details of a financial compromise were formally introduced. Defence advocate Alamgir Hossain confirmed that a settlement of 900,000 taka (approximately £6,200) had been concluded between the driver’s family and the victim’s relatives.
Hossain stated that the sum had been delivered in full and that the victim’s family agreed not to contest future bail applications or the ultimate acquittal of the accused. When asked about settling a fatal negligence case with monetary compensation, the defence counsel remarked that the victim was disabled and that his family voluntarily accepted the terms, adding that the bereaved family expressed satisfaction with the arrangement.
The case highlights ongoing systemic concerns across major urban centres in Bangladesh, where pedestrians and daily-wage labourers face severe vulnerabilities on city footpaths. Legal experts note that out-of-court financial arrangements in fatal vehicular accidents frequently raise complex questions regarding accountability, driver licensing enforcement, and judicial fairness for underprivileged families.
The case file has been transferred to the Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-5, where the court will determine how the compromise petition bears upon the pending criminal charges.
