Major Fire Incidents: No verdict to date
At least 71 people were killed in a tragic fire at Wahed Mansion in Chawkbazar's Churihatta area in Old Dhaka on February 20, 2019.
The fire broke out after a gas cylinder of a private car exploded and spread to a nearby transmitter. A day later, Mohammad Asif, a resident of the area, filed a case with Chawkbazar Police Station to seek justice for the victims.
Three years after the investigation, the investigating officer of the case, also the police inspector Abdul Kayum submitted a charge sheet accusing eight including the owner of Wahed Mansion, Hasan Sultan, and his brother Hossain Sultan Sohel on February 14, 2022.
A year later, on January 31, 2023, the court formally framed charges against the accused.
Again, after a nine-month gap, on October 17 last year, the court recorded the testimony of Asif, the complainant of the case. The next hearing of the case is fixed for March 21.
A total of 167 people were made witnesses in the case.
Asked about the delay, the state lawyer Mazharul Haque said the case was with another court when the charge was framed.
It was later transferred to the Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court-8 of Dhaka.
"Due to this transfer, it is taking some time to start the trial process," Haque said.
This is not an isolated incident in which judgment is yet to be served for the fire victims. None of the fire incidents, which left hundreds of people dead, see any judgment.
Nine years before the Churihatta fire, at least 124 people were killed in another tragic fire in Old Dhaka's Nimtoli area on June 3, 2010.
Only a general diary was filed with the Bangshal Police Station on this incident. No investigation was conducted in the GD, so the responsible persons faced no repercussions for what was a tragic case of culpable homicide.
"We become emotional after an incident takes place. There are protests and cases are filed in big incidents. But we forget about the incidents very fast," said Khurshid Alam Khan, a legal expert.
Besides, the investigation of most of the fire-related death incidents is defective as the cases tend to be filed against unidentified people.
"Substantial evidence is not presented enough to take it to conviction, resulting in the acquittal of the accused," he added.
In cases where the trials start, the court proceedings drag on for years.
Take the case of the Tazreen Fashions fire on November 24, 2012 that left 112 workers dead.
A case was filed with the Ashulia police station, and on December 22, 2013, AKM Mohsin Uzzaman Khan, an inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department of the police, submitted a charge sheet against the owner Delwar Hossain, Mahmuda Akhter and 11 employees.
The court framed charges against the 13 accused on September 13, 2015. Only 11 out of 104 witnesses gave their depositions before the court in the last eight years, according to the court records.
The last statement was recorded on May 18, 2022. No witnesses came to the court after that date. Delwar was arrested initially but now he is on bail.
It was the same in the case of the FR Tower fire incident on March 28, 2019 that left at least 25 dead. Two days later, police filed a case with the Banani Police Station.
The Police Bureau of Investigation submitted a charge sheet in the case on February 4 this year, but the trial is yet to begin.
"We are struggling to get the witnesses in fire-related incidents death cases. Sometimes, witnesses are not found for testimony and that delays the trial process," said Md Abdullah Abu, the Dhaka Metropolitan public prosecutor.
He, however, assured taking steps to complete the trial soon.
On September 3 last year, the CID submitted the charge sheet in the murder case filed over the July 18, 2021 fire at Hashem Foods factory in Narayanganj that killed 54 people. The names of Hashem Foods directors were dropped from the charge sheet.
The trial for the case is yet to begin.
On June 27, 2021, at least seven people were killed in an explosion for gas leakage in Dhaka's Moghbazar area, which is now under investigation by the Bomb Disposal Unit (BDU) of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit.
On March 8 last year, an explosion caused by a leaked gas line at a basement café of a seven-story building in the capital's Siddikbazar killed 25 people and left around 100 wounded.
A day later, a case was filed with the Bangshal Police Station, and the BDU of the CTTC unit also investigated the case, but has not been completed yet.
"Investigation is underway -- it may take some time," said Rahmat Ullah Chowdhury, chief of the BDU unit.
About the Moghbazar case, BDU is expecting to submit the charge sheet within this month, he said.
Asked why the fire-related death cases do not see judgment, Chowdhury said: "We have a deficiency in expertise for fire-related forensic investigation. We are hopeful that we will be able to investigate these types of death cases more effectively once our members finish their training."