SC clears way for arrest of 2 Rajuk officials

The Supreme Court has cleared way for Anti-Corruption Commission to arrest two officials of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) in a case filed for forgery over the design of FR Tower in Dhaka’s Banani.

The two officials are Rajuk inspector Aurangzeb Siddique Nannu and its authorised officer Md Nazrul Islam.

The apex court yesterday scrapped a High Court order that directed the two Rajuk officials to surrender before a lower court in six weeks in connection with a case.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC -- led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain -- passed the order following two separate petitions filed by the ACC challenging the HC directive.

Following the SC order, there is no bar for the ACC to arrest the two Rajuk officials in the case, ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star.

ACC had filed the corruption case against the two Rajuk officials and former Rajuk chairman KM Harun with Gulshan Police Station on October 7 last year.

According to the case statement, the three committed graft and forgery in connivance with each other to issue and approve an unauthorised design plan for the 23-storey FR Tower in the capital’s Banani.

A devastating fire in the building left at least 25 people dead and 73 others injured on March 28 this year.

The building owner constructed extra floors based on the design which should not have been approved according to building construction rules, the case statement said.

The three are also accused of negligence and misusing power, said ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan, citing the case statement.

The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice KM Hafizul Alam on July 16 directed the two Rajuk officials to surrender before a lower court in six weeks in the case. The HC bench also rejected two petitions from Aurangzeb and Nazrul seeking anticipatory bail in the case.

The HC, however, granted six-week anticipatory bail to former Rajuk chairman Harun, and asked him to surrender after six weeks before Dhaka’s Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court, which is hearing the case, said Khurshid.