Land owner of FR tower gets bail
A Dhaka court yesterday granted bail to the land owner of FR Tower, SMHI Faruque, considering his illness and old age, till August 29 in connection with the cases filed for illegal extension of the high-rise in Banani that caught fire on March 27.
The devastating fire left 25 people dead and 73 others injured.
Yesterday, Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of the Senior Special Judge’s Court in Dhaka passed the order a day after Faruque’s arrest when he was produced before it with a forwarding report.
Md Abu Bakar Siddique, a deputy director of the Anti-Corruption Commission and also the investigation officer of the case, produced Faruque before it in the afternoon.
The IO appealed to the court to keep the accused in jail until the investigation is complete. Moreover, ACC Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol told the court that the accused was involved in illegally extending the building.
Meanwhile, defense lawyer Sheikh Baharul Islam submitted a bail petition saying that his client is now about 80 years old and he has been suffering from different ailments including hearing impediment.
On Monday, Faruque was arrested from Gulshan area around 1:30pm.
On June 25, ACC filed two cases accusing 23 people for their alleged involvement in illegally extending the building. The accused include a former chairman of Rajuk, chairman of Rupayan Housing Estate Ltd and several government officials.
In an ACC enquiry, it was discovered that the 23-storey FR Tower had no fire alarm, narrow exit points and staircases, blocked fire exits and other issues. Besides, although the authorities had legally obtained a permission for a 15-storey building, they made FR Tower a 23-storey building with time. As a result, the casualties peaked.
ACC sued 20 and five people respectively in two cases filed over illegal extension of FR Tower from 16th to 18th and 19th to 23rd floors. Two of the accused were charged in both cases.
On Monday, another accused Tasvir Ul Islam, one of the owners of FR Tower, got bail in the same cases after he was produced before the same court.
Moreover, Liakat Ali Khan alias Mukul, 57, chairman of Rupayan Group -- the builder company of FR Tower, got bail in the cases on August 8 after his surrender. While assistant director of Rajuk Shah Md Sadrul Alam was arrested on July 28 and is now in jail in the same cases.