A fire broke out in the courtroom of a Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge in Old Dhaka on Monday afternoon.
Fire Service and Civil Defence control room officials have said that the fire originated at around 4:55pm. Two units of firefighters from Sadarghat Fire Station rushed to the spot and began efforts to douse the flames.
The fire was put out at around 6:43pm, the control room confirmed.
No one was hurt in the incident.
Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge KM Imrul Kayes was conducting trial proceedings when the fire started, Additional Public Prosecutor of the court Tapash Kumar Paul told Dhaka Tribune.
However, the cause of the fire could not be ascertained immediately. Staff at the court, who witnessed the incident, came up with two versions — the fire might have started from an electric short circuit in the record room, right beside the courtroom, or from an air conditioner in the courtroom.
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Foyaze Ahmed, bench officer of the court, said the courtroom is situated on the first floor of the court building.
“When the judge was conducting the trial, we suddenly saw smoke coming through the door of a small adjacent room, used to keep old records,” he said.
He said that the judge, lawyers and justice seekers left the room safely.
“We gathered all documents from the courtroom and brought them to a safe place,” he said.
The official said the courtroom did not have anything that could have ignited the fire.
In the record room, the court authorities normally hold old dockets of cases which have already been disposed of.
Some of the documents in the record room were destroyed in the fire, but it is not yet confirmed if those documents are important and still needed, Tapash Kumar Paul said.
