The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has arrested Tasvir Ul Islam, one of the owners of fire-ravaged FR Tower in the city’s Banani, in a case filed on design forgery charges.
A team of the anti-graft watchdog led by Deputy Director Md Abu Bakr Siddique arrested him at Segunbagicha on Sunday afternoon, said ACC spokesman Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya.
Tasvir, a member of the BNP’s central committee and President of the party’s Kurigram wing, is the Managing Director of Quasem Drycells, which owns the three floors of the 23-storey building.
On June 25, the ACC sued 23 people, including
the FR Tower landowner, Rupayan Chairman, two former Rajuk Chairmen, and Tasvir, accusing them of adding illegal floors to the building by forging the original design of the structure.
Real estate company Rupayan Housing built FR Tower on a land owned by SMHI Faruque on Kamal Ataturk Avenue.
The ownership of the building was jointly held by the landowner and the developer. Hence, it was named Faruque Rupayan Tower, or FR Tower in short. After the fire incident, the government formed four investigation committees.
According to a housing and public works ministry probe report, the FR Tower’s top five floors were “illegally” built and accused about 50 Rajuk officials and employees, including two ex-chairmen, of committing irregularities in approving the building design.
It also found doing the irregularities in clearing the floors for loans.
The charges against Tasvir include buying the FR Tower floors illegally by taking Tk 56.5 million loans from GSP Finance Limited.
Police had earlier arrested Tasvir, who headed the managing committee of the building, in a case for the deaths in the fire incident. He was out on bail in that case.
Earlier on July 30, the ACC earlier arrested Assistant Director of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) Shah Md Badrul Alam for design forgery.
The ACC sued 20 and five people respectively in the two cases filed on charge of illegal extension of FR Tower from 16th to 18th and 19th to 23rd floors.
It also included SMHI Faruque, owner of the land on which FR Tower has been built, Liakat Ali Khan Mukul, Chairman of Rupayan Housing Estate Ltd, the housing company that extended the building illegally, Muhammd Shawkat Ali, member of Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Syed Nazmul Huda, Sub-Divisional Engineer of Public Works Department (PWD), and Shamsur Rahman, Executive Engineer of PWD.
On Mar 28, at least 27 people were killed and scores injured in the blaze at the 23-storey commercial building. Investigations revealed that the builders had permission for 18 floors and the managers neglected fire safety.
