Banani FR Tower fire: ACC okays charge sheet against 18

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Wednesday approved a charge sheet against 18 people in a graft case filed over FR tower fire in the capital’s Banani area on 28 March 2019.

The national anti-graft agency approved the charge sheet at its regular meeting held at the commission’s headquarters in the capital, an ACC press release said.

On 25 June 2020, ACC deputy director Abu Bakar Siddique filed two cases against 23 people with the ACC’s integrated district office Dhaka-1 to this end.

The charge sheet will soon be submitted before a Dhaka court against the 18 accused, including Md Hossain Imam Faruq, owner of FR Tower, Rupayan Housing chairman Liaquat Ali Khan Mukul, and managing director of Quasem Drycells Limited Tanveer-ul-Islam.

According to the case statements, RAJUK (Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha) officials and others misused power to give an illegal revised-approval for floor 15 to 18 of FR Tower.

Later, the building was extended to 23 floors by Rupayan without RAJUK’Ss approval. The building also did not have approval from the Civil Aviation Authority and other authorities concerned.

Twenty five people were killed and over 70 people sustained injuries in the fire that broke out at the 22nd floor of the building.