Terming the building 'absolutely legal', they however said the government has the right to acquire any land including the one that has the Rangs building on it by compensating the owners for the acquisition, but it will be unacceptable if it demolishes the building by terming it illegal.

Hinting at a group of businessmen, whom the building authorities accuse of being 'behind the conspiracy' against the Rangs building, they said the country's economy will be affected if the building is demolished, since about 64 business organisations are operating their businesses from that building.

"We purchased the land from different persons and Rajuk gave us the approval.... and we have all the proper documents," Syed Nazimuddin, senior vice-president of Bank Asia, also one of the owners of the building, said in a written speech, at a news briefing held in a restaurant in the capital.

Local Government and Rural Development Adviser Anwarul Iqbal recently said in an interview that the Rangs building was constructed flouting proper procedures.

When the building owners' attention was drawn to that comment, the owners said they do not know why the adviser called the building illegal. They also said the building was established with proper permission under existing laws.

"Rajuk is our opponent but the government formed an inquiry committee with a high official of Rajuk in it... so it is clear what kind of recommendations the committee will make," a representative of the owners said when asked about the government's initiative regarding the building.

"But we will accept the court verdict as the case is in court now although the High Court already said the Rangs authorities had constructed the building according to an approved design, so the notice of Rajuk for cancelling the permission and for demolishing the building above the fifth floor is not lawful," he added.

Owners of the Rangs building firmly said it will not be wise to demolish the building in the name of an obstruction to the flight path of airplanes using an abandoned airport and a plan for constructing a link road.

"Tejgaon old airport was declared abandoned in 1980 when Zia International Airport was opened up, so the Rangs building is not an obstacle to using the old airport as a helipad," said Maj (retd) Abul Fattah, a representative of the building owners. He also said there was no link road from Bijoy Sarani to Tejgaon Industrial Area in the city master plan of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) at the time of construction of the building.

He said, "A proposal for a Y-model link road was placed before Ecnec during the immediate past government's rule. But hundreds of personal and government owned multi-storied buildings had already been established on the way of the proposed link road."

About the approval given by Rajuk, the owners said Rajuk approved the design for a proposed 10-storied shopping plus office complex building on July 6, 1989 after examining all necessary documents. Later the Rangs authorities submitted a revised design for a 22-storied building due to an expansion of the land, which Rajuk approved on May 15, 1990.

Jaglul Kabir, executive-director of Shanin Group, Habibur Rahman, director of Rangs Pharmaceuticals, Aminul Islam, deputy managing director of Bank Asia, Kutub Uddin, corporate manager of Rangs were also present. Maj (retd) Abul Fattah explained the details of the matter.