A Dhaka court yesterday rejected the bail earlier granted to Tazreen Fashions Chairman Mahmuda Akhter Mita and ordered her to surrender to lower court within 15 days.
Dhaka District and Session Judge Abdul Majid passed the order following a petition filed by the prosecution in a case filed for a fire at their apparel factory on November 24, 2012, which claimed the lives of over 111 workers and 104 others were injured.
The court also issued a show cause notice to Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate Md Ismail Hossain and Senior Judicial Magistrate Tajul Islam for their procedural mistakes in dealing with the case before and directed them to respond to it within 15 days.
In line with the order, the court issued another show cause notice to Defense Counsel ATM Golam Gous of the case asking why Mahmuda’s bail should not be canceled.
On February 9, the court of Tazul Islam send Mita and her husband Delwar Hossain, managing director of the garment factory, to jail rejecting their bail pleas when they surrendered before it.
On the following day, however, the court of Md Ismail Hossain granted a one-month conditional bail to Mita on Tk 20,000 bond and sent Delwar to jail upon bail petition anew.
On February 12, Public Prosecutor Khondoker Abdul Mannan filed a petition seeking cancellation of Mahmuda’s bail.
In the petition, the PP alluded that the accused had remained absconding for long, which proves her disobedient to the court and the accused could have threatened the victims’ families and the prosecution witnesses.
On December 31 last year, a year after the tragic fire, a court issued arrest warrants against both Mahmuda and Delwar following submitting charge sheet in the case on December 22 that year by the IO against them and 11 higher-level employees of the factory.