A Dhaka court on Tuesday sent the mother of Rana Plaza owner Sohel Rana to jail in a graft case filed over the building collapse that killed over 1000 people in 2013. Judge M Atoar Rahman of Dhaka Divisional Special Judges Court passed the order rejecting her bail petition after Morzina Begum surrendered before the court and sought bail in the case. The court earlier fixed October 11 for charge framing hearing against the accused in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). At least 1,135 people, mostly readymade garment workers, died in the biggest workplace disaster of the century in Savar on April 24, 2013 when multistoried Rana Plaza caved in. On June 15 the same year, the ACC filed a case against 17 people, including the parents of Sohel Rana, with Savar police station for violating the building code during the construction of Rana Plaza. On July 17 last year, ACC Deputy Director SM Mofidul Islam, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted a charge sheet to the Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate Court against 17 accused in the case. Sohel Rana and five others accused in the case, who were earlier shown arrested, are now in jail while the remaining accused are on the run. The charge sheet accused include Savar Mayor Mohammad Refatullah, Associate Prof of Khulna University Abdur Razzak, who was the architect of the building; former chief executive officer of Savar municipality Uttam Kumar Roy, Mohamamd Ali Khan, a ward commissioner of Savar and Rana’s parents Abdul Khalek and Morzina Begum. According to the charge sheet, the local Savar municipality initially approved a six-storey building and later it permitted the owner to extend into a 10-storeyed building, though the municipality has no authority to approve buildings over six-storey. The Savar municipality authorities, including their engineers, gave the approval for the illegal construction, it says, adding that they also approved the setting up of garment factories on the top six floors, even though the building was supposed to be a shopping complex. Morzina Begum was on the run since the filing of the case. Finally, she surrendered before the court on Tuesday.
