The chief of an inquiry committee and additional secretary of the home ministry, Mainuddin Khandokar, stated that the owner of Rana Plaza, Sohel Rana, and the owners of five garment factories are fully responsible for the Savar tragedy that claimed the lives of over 300 workers and injured more than 2,000.
After conducting an inquiry into the matter in Savar on Friday, Khandokar told The Independent that the authorities should arrest the owners of the building and the garment factories as soon as possible. “The probe committee will grill the owners for finding out the reasons properly after they are arrested,” he said. “The owner of the building, Sohel Rana, has earned a great deal of money illegally over the last few years, and he
thought that he was more powerful as he occupied the post of vice president of a wing of the ruling party,” he said.
Describing the Savar incident as a “killing”, the senior bureaucrat also observed that the owners of Rana Plaza and the five garment factories were responsible for the deaths of 300 workers as they wanted to earn a huge amount of money, since they are exceedingly greedy.
Mainuddin Khandokar said they will submit a report to the authorities after the inquiry is completed within seven working days, starting from Thursday.
He also said his committee will talk to the upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Savar upazila, Kabir Hossain Sarder, and he would be excluded from the home ministry probe committee, if necessary. Allegations have been levelled that the UNO also favoured continuation of the operations of the garments factories in the building even after cracks were spotted in Rana Plaza.
The home ministry on Thursday formed a five-member probe committee headed by an additional secretary of the ministry, Mainuddin Khandokar, to find out the reasons and identify the people responsible for the tragedy.
Four other inquiry committees, formed in this connection on Thursday, also started their respective inquiries, visiting the spots on Friday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday asked the law enforcement agencies to arrest the owner of Rana Plaza, Sohel Rana, and the owners of five garments factories.
On Thursday, home minister Dr Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir had asked the law enforcement agencies to arrest Sohel Rana, owner of Rana Plaza, which collapsed on Wednesday. Five different cases have been filed against the owner of Rana Plaza, Sohel Rana, and the owners of five garment factories so far.
The chief inspector of factories (CIF) and establishments, Habibur Rahman, filed the five cases with the Labour Court against Sohel Rana, the owner of Rana Plaza, and the owners of four garment factories for building the high-rise in violation of the building codes and failing to ensure workers’ safety.
The factories include New Wave Style Ltd, New Wave Bottoms Ltd, Phantom Textile Ltd and Phantom Apparels Ltd
Source: The Independent
