The law enforcers are playing hide-and-seek to arrest the owner of Tazreen Fashions, Delwar Hossain, his wife and four other officials of the factory, 17 days after a Dhaka court issued arrest warrant against them.
Ashulia police, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and local police are pointing finger at each other to shift the responsibility as it seemed that they do not know how the arrest-drive will go on.
On December 31, the court issued the arrest warrants after taking into cognisance the homicide charges pressed against 13 people including Delwar in a case over the devastating fire that killed 112 workers and injured many others in November 24, 2012.
The court also ordered Officer-in-Charge of Ashulia police Badrul Alam to submit a report on the execution of the arrest warrants.
Badrul yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune that the Ashulia police was not accountable to make the arrest. “The CID has forwarded the charge sheet copy to Kishoreganj police station where Delwar hails from. They will arrest him,” he said.
Asked, who will co-ordinate the arrest process of the six people he said, CID will do.
However, CID Inspector AKM Mohsinuzzaman Khan who had submitted the charge sheet before the Dhaka Chief Magistrate’s Court on December 22 after investigation said their duty was over regarding the investigation.
“We have finished the investigation. Now the Ashulia OC will arrest the accused and the court inspector will send the copies of the charge sheet to Kishoreganj police, if necessary. I will appear before the court when it will ask me to give deposition as the IO during the case procedure,” he said.
When contacted, Court Inspector Asaduzzaman said he had already sent a copy of the warrants to Ashulia and Kishoreganj police stations. They would know how to arrest the accused.
The court in its order asked the investigation officer and the police station concerned to submit a report before the court whether the fugitive people were arrested or not by February 25.
In this regard, the OC said he did not have any idea about it and the fugitives.
The previous IO after submitting charge sheet in the case before the Dhaka’s Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court told the Dhaka Tribune that if found guilty, the accused could face a maximum punishment of life imprisonment or minimum seven years in jail. The IO said the prosecution would produce 104 witnesses in the case. Four other absconding accused are Factory Manager Abdur Razzak, Quality Manager Shahiduzzaman Dulal, Production Manager Mobarak Hossain Monju and engineer Mahbubul Morshed.
The other seven accused are: Manager (admin) Md Dulal Uddin, store-in-charge Hamidul Islam and Md Al Amin, security in-charge Md Al Amin and Anisur Rahman, security guard Md Rana, and loader Shamim Mia. Of them, only security-in-charge Anisur is now behind bars while other six are on bail.
According to the charges, the accused did not allow the workers to go out of the factory saying that the fire alarm was part of “drill procedures,” additional public prosecutor Anwarul Kabir Babul told the Dhaka Tribune.
A home ministry probe committee formed in late 2012 said they had found “unpardonable neglect” on the part of the owner and that the incident might have been “subversive.”
Later, talking to several media, Delwar ruled out his responsibility in connection with the fire and claimed himself innocent. He said the law enforcers had not arrested him as there were no specific charges against him.