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The family of construction worker Mehedi Hasan Mim, 24, who was killed after being run over by a car in Dhaka’s Baridhara area, has reached a Tk9 lakh settlement with the accused, according to the defence lawyer.
The settlement was disclosed before the Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-8 on Thursday, when the accused were produced before Judge Md Abdul Moktadir.
Defence lawyer Alamgir Hossain told the court that Tk9 lakh had already been paid to members of the victim’s family and that they had signed an agreement stating they would have no objection if the accused were granted bail or acquitted.
He said the victim was speech- and hearing-impaired and that the two sides had reached the settlement through mediation, with the money intended to support the elderly parents of the deceased.
Asked whether the family had been pressured or threatened, the lawyer said there had been no such pressure and that the family had voluntarily accepted the money. He also said the family had initially been unwilling to file a case or undergo an autopsy.
The lawyer denied that the teenage boy who was initially seen at the scene had been driving the car. He said the teenager came out of the vehicle after it overturned.
The settlement was reached at the office of Shanta Mariam, a developer company, in the presence of representatives from both sides, according to the lawyer.
Mehedi was killed around 5pm on September 22 while sitting and resting on a footpath on Baridhara Road No. 1. Witnesses said a blue private car lost control, mounted the footpath and hit him, killing him on the spot.
After the crash, witnesses detained teenager Ajan Ali Sharif, who was seen getting out through the driver’s-side door, and handed him over to police. He was initially released to his family, while the case filed by Mehedi’s brother Moktadir Islam named Akash Mark, a driver employed by Ajan’s father, as the accused.
Later, CCTV footage and videos circulated on social media showed Ajan emerging from the driver’s-side door of the car after the crash. Police subsequently arrested him on Wednesday evening.
Ajan is an O-level student at an English-medium school in Gulshan. His father, Abbas Ali Sharif, is a pilot with Biman Bangladesh Airlines, while the Proton S70 involved in the accident is registered in the name of his wife, Sigma Abbas.
Akash Mark, who was named in the case, remains at large.
The circumstances surrounding who was driving the vehicle had triggered widespread discussion after the accident, particularly following the emergence of the CCTV footage.