Pinak-6 owner, son remanded

The owner of Pinak-6 and his son will both be questioned for four days in police custody. The double-decked launch carrying over 300 passengers from Kewrakandi to Mawa had sunk in Padma River near Mawa Turning Point at Lauhajang Upazila of Munshiganj on Aug 4. Munshiganj Judicial Magistrate Harun-ur-Rashid sent the vessel’s owner Abu Bakar Siddiki Kalu and his son Omar Faruk Limon to remand on Monday to facilitate questioning. The father, his son and the launch’s sareng (master) are among the six accused of carrying passengers way beyond the vessel’s capacity. They also stand accused of causing death by negligence and reckless driving in a case filed with Lauhajang Police Station by Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA). RAB arrested Kalu in Chittagong’s Agrabad nine days after the medium-sized launch sank. Faruk, who was in charge of managing Pinak-6 including ticket sales, was nabbed from at Khilkhet in Dhaka the next day, according to bdnews24.com.