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Bangladesh's anti-crime elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) early Wednesday arrested the owner of a ferry that had capsized last week in the country's central Munshiganj district, leaving at least 46 people dead and 61 others still missing.
"RAB personnel arrested the ferry owner Abu Bakkar Siddique from a house in the seaport city Chittagong at around 3:30 a.m. ( local time) Wednesday," senior RAB spokesman Mufti Mahmud Khan told Xinhua.
He said Bakkar, 60, will be shifted to the RAB headquarters in Dhaka from Chittagong, some 242 km away from capital Dhaka.
The double-decker ferry, MV Pinak, capsized in Padma, one of the three rivers that form the Ganges Delta, at around 11:15 a.m. local time on August 4.
Bangladesh authorities Monday called off search operations for the capsized jam-packed ferry with some 250 passengers on board in Munshiganj, some 27 km away from Dhaka.
Despite hectic efforts, divers could not locate any object or image of the sunken in the river due to strong currents.
Like many other Dhaka-bound ferries, the ill-fated water taxi was excessively overcrowded, some survivors alleged.
A seven-member probe committee, formed by the shipping ministry, heard testimonies of survivors and witnesses on Tuesday.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority has sued six people including the owner of the ferry and its master driver for negligence, overloading and unauthorized operations.
Some 120 people were either rescued or managed to swim ashore after the ferry capsized in high winds and rains on the Padma's Maowa-Kewrakandi river route.
