The High Court on Thursday directed the Home Ministry again to submit on June 9 its report on the fire incident at Tazreen Fashions Ltd that killed 112 workers in November last year.Passing the order, an HC bench comprising Justice Dr Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain also asked the factory owner to appear before the court again on the day.
On May 19, the same bench asked the government to immediately arrest Tazreen owner Delwar Hossain and produce him before it, and submit the Home Ministry probe report on May 30.
The court had also issued a rule upon the government to explain in four weeks as to why it should not be directed to arrest the Tazreen owner for his alleged negligence in protecting the workers from the fire and also to explain its inaction after the fire incident.
The Home Secretary, the Labour Secretary, the BGMEA president, the IGP, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner, the officers-in-charge of Savar and Ashulia police stations, Tazreen owner Delwar Hossain and the Fire Service and Civil Defence Director General were made respondents to the rule.
The order and the rule came following a writ petition filed by three anthropologists — Nazneen Akhtar Banu, Syeda Gulrukh and Mahmudul Hassan Suman — seeking HC directives to arrest the owner of Tazreen Fashions in connection with the devastating fire at his RMG factory on November 24, 2012.
Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua, the counsel for the petitioners, said Delwar appeared before the court voluntarily on Thursday. The respondents neither produced him nor submitted the probe report before the High Court as per its directives.
During the hearing, the court expressed disappointment at the failure of the state to produce the Tazreen owner before it.
Posing a question, the HC said, “You couldn’t produce him (Delwar) saying he is absconding. Now how could he appear before the court personally?” (Source: UNB)
