Police on Friday detained two close relatives of Savar’s nine-storey Rana Plaza owner Mohammad Sohel Rana from Manikganj to quiz them about his whereabouts.
The detainees were identified as Munni Begum, wife of Rana’s cousin Jahangir Alam of Poddarbarhi of Harirampur thana, and his uncle Anwar Hossain.
Dhaka district Additional Superintendent of Police Shyamal Kumar Mukherjee told bdnews24.com that Savar police captured the duo from their village home at around 9am.
The police official declined to divulge any further detail.
The death toll climbed to at 304 as rescuers look for last survivors under tons of debris two days after the huge structure, that developed cracks on Tuesday, collapsed all of a sudden at this suburban township Savar at around 8:30am on Wednesday.
Most of the victims of the country’s worst ever collapse were garment workers while the building housed five readymade garment factories alongside 300 shops with nearly 5,000 workers.
Local residents say some 3,500 people were working on that day.
Rescuers have pulled out more than 2,348 people alive from the ruins so far but fear that the number of victims would go up sharply as many people still remained trapped under the debris for over 60 hours.
They have come up with a list of 565 people who are still unaccounted for.
Many survivors alleged that the owners of their garment factories forced them to go back to work on Wednesday morning against their will.
Rana, a Senior Joint Convenor of Awami League’s youth front Juba League’s Savar municipality unit, has been on the run since the collapse.
Police and RAJUK filed two lawsuits with the Savar Police Station on Wednesday night accusing Rana and the owners of the garment units owners of the garment factories for the loss of lives and damages.
Meanwhile, the High Court on Thursday ordered the OC of Saver Police Station to ensure personal appearance of Sohel Rana and the Chairmen and Managing Directors of all garment factories housed in the building on Apr 30 before the court.
Two days into the Savar tragedy, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday ordered immediate arrest of Rana along with the owners of five garment factories.
The order has already been sent to all agencies.
Source: Bd news24