Trial of the murder case filed over the deadly collapse of Rana Plaza building in Savar has remained stalled for about four months as the government is yet to give green signal about the four public servants who are accused in the case.
All the other accused were produced before the court on October 4, but the hearing date was deferred by one more month as it did not receive clearance of the Labour Ministry.
The Criminal Investigation Department submitted two charge sheets on June 1 – against 42 people, including Rana plaza owner Sohel Rana and 13 government officials, in a case filed under the Penal Code and against 17, including seven public servants, in the other case filed under the Building Construction Act.
CID Assistant Superintendent Bijoy Krishna Khar, also investigator of the cases, sent letters to the relevant ministries seeking clearance about 20 officials to include them in charge sheets. But he got clearance about 16 accused.
Despite this, he named the four officials in the charge sheet in the case filed under the Penal Code. Labour Ministry denied police permission to press charges against Joint Labour Director Jamshedur Rahman, former deputy chief factory inspector Belayet Hossain and inspectors Yusuf Ali and Shahidul Islam.
On July 8, the court took the charges into cognisance in the case filed for violation of building code, but refused to do the same in the other case.
Following a petition by the prosecution, the court directed the government for giving clearance of the four officials. But the government is yet to respond positively.
The eight-storey plaza that housed five garment factories, a shopping complex and a branch of BRAC Bank, collapsed on April 24, 2013 killing over 1,135 people, mostly female workers, and injuring over 2,500 others.
The charge sheets describe the owner of the building and the officials of the garment factories as cold blooded murderers for sending their workers in despite knowing of cracks in the building and the risks involved.
The court earlier fixed August 18 and yesterday to take the Penal Code case into cognisance.
Dhaka’s Senior Judicial Magistrate Siraj Zinnat yesterday fixed November 8 for submission of the clearance for the four accused, Additional public prosecutor of the court Anwarul Kabir Babul told the Dhaka Tribune.
A total of 22 people, including Rana, were arrested in connection with the cases and 14 of them, including Rana’s father Abdul Khalek, are now on bail.
