Tazreen chairman sent to jail

Tazreen Fashions Chairman Mahmuda Akter, implicated in a case over a devastating fire in the company’s garment factory, has been sent to jail.

Dhaka’s Metropolitan Magistrate Kazi Shahidul Islam issued imprisonment order on Thursday after rejecting her bail petition.

At least 112 workers were killed and more than 200 suffered burns, when a fire swept through Tazreen’s Ashulia factory on Nov 24, 2012.

Akter and several others have been charged with manslaughter.
The fate of Akter’s bail has swung from approval to cancellation with petition and counter-petition being filed in successive courts of appeal.
On Feb 9 this year, Dhaka’s Senior Judicial Magistrate Tazul Islam had sent Tazreen Akter and her husband Delwar Hossain, the company managing director, to prison.

But the very next day, Dhaka’s Chief Judicial Magistrate Ismail Hossain granted Akter conditional bail following an appeal.

This prompted the prosecution to move District and Sessions Judge’s Court for a cancellation of the granted bail.

On Mar 20, Dhaka’s District and Sessions Judge Md Abdul Majid quashed the bail, ordering Akter to surrender before a Magistrate’s court within 15 days.

The couple then appealed to the High Court for the restoration of the bail order.

But it rejected their pleas on Wednesday.

The magistrate, on Thursday, ordered Akter to prison.

Her husband is already in jail.

In December last year, police charged 13 people for the tragedy.

They have been accused of manslaughter and causing death by negligence.

The charge of death due to negligence was appended later along with that of sabotage by arson.