A court in Dhaka has withdrawn the case from the verdict list for further arguments against Rana Plaza owner Sohel Rana and seven others, filed over irregularities in the construction of the plaza in Savar.
The verdict was scheduled to be announced on Tuesday at Dhaka Divisional Special Judge BM Tariqul Kabir’s court. However, the court instead set 6 October for further arguments in the case.
Ariful Islam, bench assistant of the court, confirmed the matter and said, the case was withdrawn from the list of cases scheduled for verdict and a date was fixed for hearing further arguments. The court passed the order suo motu, he said.
According to court sources, 16 August was set for delivering the verdict. However, the court deferred the date to 1 September as the verdict was not ready on that day.
Along with Sohel Rana, the other accused in the case are former Savar Municipality 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 Russell, former town planner Farzana Islam and licence inspector Md Abdul Motaleb.
During the trial, Rana’s father Abdul Khaleque and mother Morzina Khatun Begum died and were subsequently discharged from the case.
On 24 April 2013, the eight-storey Rana Plaza near Savar bus stand collapsed, killing 1,135 people and injuring more than 1,000 others.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) launched an investigation soon after the incident into corruption in the construction of the building. A case was later filed over alleged irregularities in its construction on 15 June 2014.
According to the case documents, Savar Municipality allowed five garment factories to be set up there although the building was initially approved as a shopping complex.
The trial in the case began after charges were framed on 21 May 2017. 19 out of 20 witnesses testified during the trial.
