Anti-Corruption Commission investigation into the wealth of Sohel Rana, owner of the collapsed Rana Plaza at Savar, got stuck in legal complexities, ACC Chairman M Bodiuzzaman said on Wednesday.
ACC on April 28 formed a probe body headed by its Deputy Director M Mafidul Islam to this end.
The probe team on May 15 submitted the preliminary report to ACC recommending it serve separate notices to Sohel Rana and his father Abdul Khalek under the Section 26 (1) of the ACC Act-2004 asking them to submit their wealth statements.
“But we are facing some legal complexities for which notices for wealth statement cannot be served right now,” the ACC chairman said.
Referring to the High Court (HC) ruling, he said ACC could not serve notices to anyone in jail.
If notices are served to such people they can challenge legality of the notice and can file a writ with the HC causing more delay in the process.
“After the 1/11 changeover we served some notices against people in custody yielding no result at all because of legal complexity.
“We are conducting the inquiry into the wealth of Rana very smoothly,” Bodiuzzaman said.
He said: “There is no alternative to waiting for Sohel Rana and his father to get bail. Only then we can serve notices to them asking them to submit their wealth statements.”
The inquiry report of the committee submitted to the commission on May 23 revealed that Sohel Rana, owner of collapsed Rana Plaza at Savar, owns 23 bank accounts, two brick fields and two commercial towers and a lot of land at Savar.
The report said Rana built two commercial buildings at Savar over the last 10 to 12 years.
One was the collapsed Rana Plaza and the other is the eight-storey Rana Tower.
Rana also owns a five-storey residential building at Savar and a two-storey building at Joymandap village of Manikganj. Rana has two brick fields – Rana Bricks and MAK Bricks at Dhamrai, said ACC sources.
The report read Rana’s sister Sumi owns a building at Savar bus stand while his other two sisters Sufia and Rawshan Ara own two residential buildings.
Rana also owns an oil mill named Rana Oil Mill at Savar bus stand.
Rana has more than 23 bank accounts with the Exim Bank, National Bank, Dutch Bangla Bank and BRAC Bank where he has five loan accounts and one Fixed Deposit Receipt (FDR) account worth Tk35 lakh, said the report.
During inquiry, the probe body members also found that Rana has one private car, one microbus and two trucks, said an official.
The inquiry team is expecting to have more findings on the wealth of Sohel Rana if notices for wealth statement are to be served to Rana and his father.
Rana Plaza, an eight-storey building, was collapsed at Savar on April 28 where at least 1131 people were killed and 2438 injured.
