A Dhaka court yesterday (July 31) rejected the bail appeal for suspended Savar municipality Mayor Refat Ullah and placed him on a one-day police remand in a building code violation case in connection with the Rana Plaza disaster.
Dhaka Senior Judicial Magistrate Kazi Shahidul Islam passed the remand order after the investigating officer of the case, CID Assistant Superintendent Bijay Krishna Khar, asked for a five-day remand to question Refat, who is also president of the BNP's Savar municipality unit. Sanaullah Miah appeared for the accused, who was present before the court.
Rajuk Authorised Officer Md Helal Uddin filed a case on April 25 under the Building Construction Act against Refat and 21 others for ignoring regulations while permitting the construction of the multi-storey building.
The Rana Plaza collapse killed at least 1,131 people and injured around 2,500 others.
Yesterday was fixed for for the submission of an investigation report on the case. The court extended the deadline until September 25. Meanwhile, the same court rejected bail pleas filed for five other accused in the case “ Abdul Khaleque, father of Rana Plaza owner Sohel Rana; Bazlus Samad Adnan, chairman of New Wave Apparels; Mahmudur Rahman Tapash, managing director of New Wave Bottoms Ltd; engineer Rafiqul Islam and Abul Hasan “ who were present during the hearing.
Additional Public Prosecutor Anwarul Kabir Babul opposed the petitions, saying the investigation would be hampered if the accused were freed on bail.