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Tazreen Garment Tragedy

Owners land in jail, finally

Staff Correspondent
A Dhaka court yesterday sent Tazreen Fashions owner Delwar Hossain and his wife to jail in a case over the country's worst factory fire that killed 112 workers.
Delwar, managing director, and Mahmuda Akter, chairman of Tazreen Fashions, are the first garment factory owners to be prosecuted for factory fire.
The couple turned themselves in to the court to seek bail yesterday, after being at large for more than a year following the November 2012 fire in their Ashulia factory. The surrender came six weeks after the same court took the charges into cognisance and issued arrest warrants for them.
Senior Judicial Magistrate Tajul Islam rejected their bail petitions and sent them to prison around 12:20pm. Hours after, the magistrate fixed today for hearing their bail petitions.
During yesterday's proceeding, some SOO workers of Tazreen Fashions demonstrated on the court premises, demanding the death penalty to the couple.
Before the fire incident, Tazreen was making clothes for various international brands, including Walmart of the US.
On December 22 last year, police pressed homicide charges against 13 people, including Delwar and Mahmuda. The accused also face charges of causing grievous injuries and deaths by negligence.
According to the charge sheet, the couple had constructed the building on a faulty plan with the help of the engineer, and illegally used the groundfloor walkway as a warehouse.
Of the 11 other accused, the factory manager, quality manager, engineer and production manager were shown as fugitives in the charge sheet.
Six accused got bail from the High Court and the lower court on different dates. Only the security in-charge of the company is now behind bars.
Following a writ petition, the HC in May last year asked the government to explain why it should not be directed to prosecute Delwar for his alleged negligence in protecting the workers.
The rule is pending with the HC, and the court may hear it any day, said petitioners' counsel Asaduzzaman.
During the proceedings of the writ petition, Delwar appeared before the HC at every hearing in line with a court order.
In June last year, a probe body formed by the home ministry submitted a report to the HC, saying there was "unpardonable negligence" on the part of the owner.
Talking to The Daily Star at the HC on May 30 last year, Delwar protested his innocence. He claimed the law enforcers did not arrest him, as there were no specific charges against him.
The Tazreen fire highlighted the appalling safety records in the sector, a mainstay of the economy, where about 40 lakh workers toil for some of the lowest sector wages in the world.
Bangladesh suffered the worst industrial tragedy four months later in April last year when the Rana Plaza garment factory complex collapsed in Savar, killing at least 1,135 people.