Court Correspondent
The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Court of Dhaka on Monday issued arrest warrants against 24 fugitives of the murder case filed in connection with the collapse of Rana Plaza that killed 1,136 people while 2,524 people were injured in the incident on April 24, 2013.Senior Judicial Magistrate Al Amin of CJM Court of Dhaka passed the arrest warrants after accepting the charge sheet of the case on Monday afternoon. Of the accused, Rana is in jail custody and 16 others are on bail. The court also asked the Investigation Officer of the case to submit an update regarding the arrest warrants on January 27, 2016.
The eight-storied building, Rana Plaza, that housed five garment factories, a shopping complex and a branch of BRAC Bank, collapsed on April 24, 2013. Two cases were filed over the incident, one under the Penal Code while the other under the Building Construction Act. A day after the collapse, Rajuk official Helaluddin filed a case against Sohel Rana, owner of Rana Plaza, for structural flaws in the building and for constructing it with sub-standard materials and also for violation of building code.
The police of Savar Police Station filed another case while a family member of a victim filed the other case against Rana, his father and owners of the five factories housed in the building.
On June 1, over two years after the incident, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police pressed charges against 42 people, including Sohel Rana, in two cases filed over the collapse of the building. Of the accused, 17 are common in the two charge sheets, submitted by the CID.
Sohel Rana’s father Abdul Malek and mother Marjina Begum and 12 government officials are among the accused of the charge sheets. The charge sheet of the murder case, include 594 people as witnesses while 135 are listed as witnesses in the charge sheet of another case.
