A Dhaka court on Tuesday deferred until 28 October the presentation of arguments against building owner Sohel Rana and seven other accused in a corruption case filed over the illegal construction and design violations of Rana Plaza in Savar.
The arguments were scheduled to be presented on Tuesday, but Acting Judge Rafiqul Islam of the Dhaka Divisional Special Judge’s Court fixed the new date as Divisional Special Judge BM Tariqul Kabir was on leave.
The court’s Bench Assistant Ariful Islam confirmed the development.
Earlier on 1 September, Judge Kabir, on his own initiative, withdrew the case from verdict stage and ordered a rehearing of arguments.
The court had initially scheduled 16 August to pronounce the judgment but postponed it to 1 September as the verdict was not ready, before reverting the case to argument stage on that day.
Along with building owner Sohel Rana, the seven other accused in the case are Savar Municipality former mayor Refat Ullah, former chief executive officer Uttam Kumar Roy, executive engineer Rafiqul Islam, former assistant engineer Mahbubur Rahman, former sub-assistant engineer Rakibul Hasan Russel, former town planner Farzana Islam, and licence inspector Md Abdul Mottaleb.
Among them, Mahbubur and Farzana have been absconding from the start, while the rest are out on bail.
Although Sohel Rana secured bail in this case, he remains in prison in connection with a murder case filed over the deadly collapse of Rana Plaza and was produced in court from jail on Tuesday.
During the trial, Sohel Rana’s father Abdul Khalek and mother Morjina Khatun Begum passed away, and their names were subsequently exempted from the case.
Following the building collapse, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) launched an investigation into alleged corruption in the construction of the building.
On 15 June 2014, ACC Deputy Assistant Director SM Mofidul Islam filed a case at Savar Police Station against 17 individuals over the construction of the building in violation of approved designs.
As the building stood in his father’s name, Sohel Rana was initially omitted from the primary case.
However, investigators later included him in the charge sheet after finding evidence that he was the principal caretaker of the building.
On 23 February 2017, the investigating officer submitted a further investigation report accusing 18 people.
The court subsequently exempted eight individuals and framed charges against 10 accused. The trial formally began on 21 May 2017, during which 19 out of 20 prosecution witnesses testified in court.
According to the further investigation report, Savar Municipality approved a design for a six-storey shopping complex named Rana Plaza on 10 April 2006.
On 22 January 2008, approval was sought for constructing four additional storeys.
Allegations state that municipal authorities concealed information from the original approval file, opened a new file, and approved a design for a 10-storey building.
Although approval was granted for a shopping complex, permission was later illegally given to set up five garment factories in the building.
The 10-storey Rana Plaza building near Savar bus stand collapsed on 24 April 2013, trapping nearly 5,000 garment workers beneath the rubble.
A multi-day rescue operation retrieved 1,136 bodies from the wreckage, while 2,438 people were rescued alive, nearly 2,000 of whom suffered injuries and permanent physical disabilities.
Five days after the disaster, on 29 April, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Sohel Rana from Benapole in Jashore as he attempted to flee to India. Sohel Rana currently faces two other pending trials, one for murder and another for violating building construction regulations.
