Tazreen Fire Probe
Tazreen Fashions owner Delwar, 12 others indicted
Police on Sunday filed a charge sheet against 13 people for the fire at Tazreen Fashions in Savar last year. As many as 112 workers, most of them women, were killed in the blaze in the readymade garments factory at Nishchintapur of Ashulia in Savar on the outskirts of the capital on the evening of November 24, 2012. CID inspector AKM Mohsinuzzaman Khan, the investigating officer (IO) of the case, submitted the charge-sheet in the court of chief judicial magistrate Washim Sheikh in Dhaka around 9.30 am.
The prime accused in the charge-sheet is Delwar Hossain, managing director of the factory. The other accused are Tazreen Fashions Ltd chairman Mahmuda Akter, factory manager Abdur Razzak, quality manager Shahiduzzaman Dulal, production manager Mobarak Hossain, manager (administration) Md Dulal Uddin, engineer Mahbubul Morshed, two store-in-charges Hamidul Islam and Md Al Amin, two security in-charges Md Al Amin and Anisur Rahman, security guard Md Rana alias Anwarul, and loader Shamim Mia.
According to the charge-sheet, the 13 accused did not allow the workers to get out of the factory by dismissing the fire alarm as a safety drill.
The case will come up for hearing on December 31, additional public prosecutor Anwarul Kabir Babul told the media. The prosecution has called for 111 witnesses, he added.
Though a sub-inspector of Ashulia Police Station had filed a case of culpable homicide case the very next day of the tragedy on November 25, 2012, it took the police more than a year to submit the charge-sheet in court.
Of the 13 accused, six higher ups in the company, including the owners, are absconding. They are Mahmuda Akter, Delwar Hossain, Abdur Razzaq, Shahiduzzaman Dulal, M Mahabubul Morshed and Mobarak Hossain. Of the remaining, six are out on bail from the High Court while security-in-charge Anisur Rahman is still in jail.
The charge-sheet gave clean chit to three others – ex-chairma Abdul Kuddus, APM Sohel Rana and cutting master Sujan Hawladar – for lack of evidence.
The fire at Tazreen Fashion Ltd had triggered a wave of concern at home and abroad over poor safety standards in Bangladeshi factories.
-With The Independent input
