Rana Plaza owner Sohel granted six-month interim bail

The High Court today (1 October) granted six-month interim bail to Sohel Rana, owner of Rana Plaza, in a case filed over the collapse of the 10-storey building in 2013 due to a structural failure killing over a thousand people.

The HC bench of Justice Md Ataur Rahman Khan and Justice KM Hafizul Alam passed the order after hearing his bail petition.

Deputy Attorney General Md Masud Rana, who represented the prosecution in the court, said the state will appeal against the bail order with the Appellate Division.

Earlier on 6 April 2023, the High Court granted bail to Rana in the same case. Later, the state counsel filed a petition challenging the legality of the HC order.

Later, on 9 April of the same year, the Appellate Division stayed the order.

On 24 April 2013, Rana Plaza, an illegally-constructed building in Savar that housed five garment factories, came down crashing, killing 1,138 people and injuring over 2,000 others.

On 1 June 2015, Assistant Superintendent of Crime Investigation Department (CID) of police Bijoy Krishna Kar submitted a charge sheet in the case against 41 people including the building owner Sohel Rana.

A total of 594 people were made witnesses in this case.

On 18 July 2016, Dhaka District and Session Court Judge SM Kuddus Zaman framed charges against the accused and passed an order to begin the trial.

But it got barred as most of the accused appealed to the higher court challenging legality of the order.

Trial in the murder case filed over Rana Plaza collapse began officially on 31 January 2022 by recording statements of the witnesses.

After clearing the appeals, District and Sessions Court Judge AHM Habibur Rahman Bhuiyan recorded the statement of the plaintiff, then Sub-Inspector of Savar police station Wali Ashraf.

Over the tragic incident then SI of Savar police station Wali Ashraf filed a murder case accusing the owner and others of dereliction and negligence in building construction.