United Hospital fire: HC defers order on writ petition against responsible persons

The High Court today deferred to June 29 the delivery of its order on a writ petition filed seeking action against those responsible for the deadly fire at the isolation unit in United Hospital, where five people were killed on May 27.

The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim, who was scheduled to pass an order today on the writ petition, deferred the date of delivering a directive, as the writ petitioner did not get the probe reports from the attorney general's office.

The court asked the attorney general's office to handover the copies of the probe reports on the incident to the writ petitioner by June 29.

Following a HC order, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), Fire Service and Civil Defence, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, and United Hospital authorities submitted separate probe reports to the court through attorney general's office on June 11.

The HC bench issued the order following the writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Niaz Mohammad Mahboob, seeking necessary orders.

Niaz submitted the petition as a public interest litigation to the HC on May 31, seeking its directives on the authorities concerned to give Tk 5 crore to each victim's family and to take necessary action against the persons responsible for the incident.

In the petition, the lawyer included the reports published in The Daily Star and the Prothom Alo, saying that there was negligence on part of the authorities concerned in rescuing the victims.