Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
A six-member probe committee formed by Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), in the wake of the fire incident at 23-storey Faruque-Rupayan Tower (FR Tower) FR Tower in the city’s Banani area on Sunday identified the building as risky.
“The building was built in violation of building code and the design submitted to the RAJUK. The building is more risky as it was built up to 23-storey instead of approved 18,” Convener of the probe body and RAJUK member (development) Major (Retd) Shamsuddin Ahmed Chowdhury told the reporters during the inspection of the spot on Sunday .
There was no fire safety measure in the building. The probe committee will submit a primary report within two to three days. The building also lacked adequate fire safety measures, he said.
A member of the probe body and Professor of Civil Engineering Department of Bangladesh University Engineering Technology (BUET) Ishtiaq Ahmed, said, “It will take more than 150 days to prepare a full report. After completion of the investigation, they could say whether the building would be fit for use after renovation work or not, as the building was badly damaged by the fire.”
The probe team inspected the scene of the fire after three days of the blaze engulfing the FR Tower that claimed 26 lives on March 28. All panel members entered the FR tower at 9:30 am and they moved into the building from ground floor to the 22nd floor.
According to the building and fire safety codes, the building cannot be used before renovation, said Professor Mehedi Ahmed Ansari of the Civil Engineering Department of the BUET and member of the team of Rajuk.
Cracks have started to emerge in the slabs and beams of the FR Tower leaving the high-rise in a vulnerable condition, he said.
But whether the 23-floor office bloc can be used again or not will be disclosed at the end of the investigation, said Ansari.
It has since been alleged that the developers were only given permission to construct an 18-storey building, but built five more floors to take the structure to 23 floors. “As far as we can tell, the fire originated in the south-west part of the building’s 8th floor of the building,” said Prof Ansari.
Also members of probe bodies formed by the home ministry and the disaster management and relief ministry suspected that the FR Tower fire originated on the 8th floor from electric short circuits.
‘The committee has recorded statements of 24 witnesses so far. After reviewing the statement and documents, we suspect the fire originated on the 8th floor from electric short circuits.’
The committee will submit report on April 3 after reviewing the statements of 24 witnesses of the incident and statements recorded from injured who have been undergoing treatments in different hospitals and other documents.
Meanwhile, Police have arrested two of the owners of Banani’s fire-ravaged FR Tower, BNP leader Tasvir Ul Islam and engineer SMHI Faruk.
A Dhaka court on Sunday placed SMHI Faruque, the land owner of FR Tower in Banani, and Tasvirul Islam, one of the owners of the high-rise building, on a seven-day remand each in connection with a case over Thursday’s fire incident. Metropolitan Magistrate Sadbir Yasir Ahsan Chowdhury passed the order after Md Jalaluddin, Inspector of Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) and Investigation Officer (IO) of the case, produced them in the court seeking 10-day remand each.
Faruk owns the land on which FR Tower has been erected while Tasvir is the President of the building’s management committee.
Tasvir was arrested from his Baridhara residence around 10:30pm on Saturday, said Shahjahan Saju, the Additional Deputy Commissioner of the DMP.
Tasvir, a member of the BNP’s central committee and the president of the party’s Kurigram wing, is the Managing Director and CEO of Quasem Industries Limited.
Faruk was arrested from Bashundhara Residential Area around 1:45am on Sunday, said Moshiur Rahman, the Deputy Commissioner of the Detective Branch of the DMP.
Real estate company Rupayan erected the tower on a land owned by engineer SMHI Faruk. The building with the holding No. 32 became operational in 2007.
The ownership of the building was jointly held by the land owner and the developer. Hence, it was named Faruk Rupayan Tower, or FR Tower in short.
Rupayan subsequently sold different units that were under their ownership. A total of 24 owners, including Faruk and Tasvir, own units in the 23-floor building. They have rented out different floors to different organisations.
Tasvir Ul Islam contested for the Kurigram-3 (Ulipur) seat as the BNP candidate in the 11th national elections and lost. He joined politics in 2006. Tasvir was the younger brother of late AKM Maidul Islam, a founding member of the BNP.
Maidul was elected six times as an MP from the Kurigram-3 constituency and was a member of the cabinet during the rules of Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad.
Milton Dutt, a Sub-Inspector of Banani Police, filed the case against land owner Faruque, Liakat Ali Khan alias Mukul, 57, Chairman of Rupayan Group, the builder company, and Tasvirul, 62, and others who were part of the building management committee and some unknown persons, according to DMP.
In the meantime, Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police has been ordered to investigate Thursday’s fire at FR Tower that killed 26 people, said Obaidur Rahman, Additional Deputy Commissioner (media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
Liakat Ali alias Mukul is currently staying in Singapore to avoid arrest. Detective sources said. Liakat reportedly fled to Singapore the day after the devastating fire broke out FR Tower.
