Building owner held in Benapole

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Sohel Rana, the owner of the nine-storey Savar building that collapsed four days ago, has been brought to Dhaka Sunday afternoon by a helicopter couple of hours into his arrest in Benapole, Jessore district.

The helicopter of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) landed at Tejgaon old airport around 5:00pm from where he was taken to the headquarters of the elite force at Uttara.

A Rab team arrested Rana around 3:05pm at his friend’s residence in Ball Field area, reported our Jessore correspondent.

"Sohel Rana was arrested in Benapole five minutes ago," State Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanak told reporters in Savar, site of the Rana Plaza, around 3:10pm.

He will be brought to Dhaka by a helicopter, the minister added.

Rana took shelter in the second floor of the four-storey rented house of his friend Mithu, a furniture trader, our correspondent said quoting locals.

Two cases were filed against Jubo League leader Rana who was on the run since the collapse of Rana Plaza at Savar on the outskirts of the capital.

The Rana Plaza housing five readymade garment factories, a branch of Brac Bank and a shopping complex, caved in on Wednesday trapping several thousands of people inside it.

At least 369 people were found dead in the building collapse till Sunday afternoon.

Police however arrested three owners of the factories and two engineers of Savar Municipality in connection with the cases filed over the building collapse.

Law enforcers raided the houses of many relatives of Rana in Dhaka and other districts to arrest him till Sunday noon.

On Friday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered arrest of Rana.

On April 23, several cracks developed on some pillars and a few floors of the building following a jolt, causing panic among the people working there.

The industrial police visited the building that day and asked them [the building authorities] not to open the building. But the warnings and instructions were ignored leading to the collapse.

Workers of at least two garment factories at Rana Plaza were forced to join their workplaces following a false assurance on the building’s safety from a local engineer, relatives of the victims alleged.

CASES

Two cases were filed with Savar Police Station Wednesday night following the building collapse.

Helaluddin, an authorised officer of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), filed a case against Rana for the structural fault found at the building and constructing the structure using substandard materials and violating building code.

Wali Ashraf, a sub-inspector of Savar Police Station, filed the other case against Rana, his father Abdul Khalek and the owners of the five garments housed in the building for loss of lives and damages.