A Dhaka court has moved the corruption case against eight people, including Rana Plaza owner Sohel Rana, from the verdict stage to the arguments stage to clarify certain issues before delivering its judgment.
Dhaka Divisional Special Judge BM Tariqul Kabir passed the order on his own motion on Tuesday without delivering the scheduled verdict.
ACC Prosecutor Istiaq Ahmed confirmed the matter, saying the judge had deferred the verdict to allow arguments on some issues. The court will deliver its judgment after hearing the arguments, he said.
The case was previously scheduled for verdict on August 16. However, the announcement was deferred to September 1 as the verdict was not ready.
Sohel Rana is out on bail in the corruption case but remains in jail in connection with the murder case filed over the Rana Plaza collapse. He was produced before the court from jail on Sunday.
Among the other accused, Mahbubur Rahman and Farzana Islam have been absconding since the case was filed. The other accused are out on bail and appeared before the court on Sunday.
During the trial, Sohel Rana’s father Abdul Khalek and mother Morjina Khatun Begum died. They were subsequently acquitted in the case.
Case background
On April 24, 2013, the 10-storey Rana Plaza building near Savar bus stand collapsed, trapping around 5,000 workers from several garment factories operating inside the building.
Rescuers recovered 1,136 bodies and rescued 2,438 people alive from the rubble. Around 2,000 of those rescued were injured or left disabled.
Five days after the disaster, RAB arrested Sohel Rana in Benapole, Jessore, on April 29 as he was allegedly attempting to flee to India.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) began investigating allegations of corruption in the construction of the building soon after the collapse.
On June 15, 2014, ACC Deputy Assistant Director SM Mofidul Islam filed a case against 17 people with Savar police station for allegedly constructing the building in violation of the approved design.
The building was registered in the name of Sohel Rana’s father, and the initial case excluded his parents. However, the subsequent investigation found that Sohel Rana was the main person responsible for the building, leading to his inclusion in the charge sheet.
On February 23, 2017, the investigation officer submitted a further investigation report accusing 18 people. The court later acquitted eight of them and ordered charges to be framed against the remaining 10.
According to the further investigation report, Savar Municipality approved a design on April 10, 2006, for a six-storey shopping complex named Rana Plaza.
On January 22, 2008, approval was sought to add four more floors to the six-storey structure. The municipal authorities subsequently opened new files, concealing information from the earlier approval documents, and approved the design for a 10-storey building.
Although the original plan was for a shopping complex, the Savar Municipality later allowed five garment factories to operate in the building.
After the charge sheet was filed against the accused on May 21, 2017, the trial began. During the trial, 19 of the 20 prosecution witnesses testified before the court.
Two other cases are pending against Sohel Rana — one for murder in connection with the Rana Plaza collapse and another for violating building construction regulations.
