The River Police have arrested Mosaddek Hanif Sowad, the owner of Moyur-2 launch that was involved in a fatal collision with another smaller vessel on the Buriganga River near Dhaka's Shyampur.
He was apprehended in Dhanmondi's Sobhanbag early Thursday, according to OC Rezaul Karim Bhuiyan of Sadarghat River Police.
It followed the arrest of the launch's supervisor Abdus Salam on Jul 7, reports bdnews24.com.
On Jun 29, the ill-fated launch, Morning Bird, overturned after being hit by Moyur-2 near Shyambazar on the morning of Jun 29.
More than 50 passengers from Munshiganj swam ashore and the others were trapped while 34 more were reported dead after a search that lasted two days.
The River Police subsequently started a case against seven people, including the owner and the launch master, carrying charges of negligent death.
The shipping ministry and BIWTA formed two separate probe panels to look into the incident.
The panels produced a 20-point recommendation to prevent recurrence of such disasters after identifying nine reasons behind the tragedy.
After watching CCTV camera footage, State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury had earlier said that the incident appeared to be a ‘planned’ case of ‘murder’ to him.
“…If I watched the footage now, I’ll again say that it was murder. Since a case has been filed alleging death due to negligence, it will come under Section 302 (murder case) if proven by the investigation,” he said, and added that the recommendations would be implemented in phases.