The Dhaka divisional special judge’s court on Sunday ordered reinvestigation into the case against Rana Plaza owner Sohel Rana and 16 others for violating the building code while constructing Rana Plaza which collapsed on April 24, 2013 killing 1,135 people, mostly apparel workers. Divisional special judge M Atoar Rahman also posted for May 8 the submission of the investigation report. The court passed the order after hearing the plea on framing of charges mentioning that the cases needed to be re-investigated as the investigation officer did not implicated the people involved in approval of the design and development and construction of the building and as it was a sensational case and a humanitarian issue. On June 15, 2014, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case against 17 people including the parents of Sohel Rana with Savar police station for violating the National Building Code while constructing the eight-storey Rana Plaza. On July 17, 2014, the commission’s deputy director SM Mofidul Islam, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court. Initially, the commission did not named Sohel Rana in the case as the building was owned by his father and his name was not found in any of the documents. The commission, however, implicated Sohel Rana in the case as the investigation found evidence of his involvement in the building code violation. The corruption watchdog approved the charge sheet on July 15, 2014.
The commission pressed charges against Sohel Rana, Savar municipal mayor Mohammad Refatullah, Khulna University associate professor Abdur Razzak, who was the architect of the building, former Savar municipality chief executive officer Uttam Kumar Roy, Savar ward commissioner Mohamamd Ali Khan and Rana’s parents Abdul Khalek and Morzina Begum and 10 others. According to the charge, Savar municipality initially approved a six-storey building and later it permitted the owner to extend the building up to 10 storeys. The municipality has no authority to approve the construction of any building beyond six storeys. The building owners obtained permission for a six-storey building but later they added three more floors. The Savar municipal authorities, including their engineers, gave the approval for the illegal construction, it said, adding that they also approved the setting up of apparel factories on the top six floors, even though the nine-storey building was supposed to be a shopping complex. On April 24, 2013, Rana Plaza, which housed five apparel factories, a shopping complex and a branch of BRAC Bank, collapsed. The death toll from the deadliest building collapse stood at 1,135 while 2,438 people were rescued alive from under the rubbles.
