Rana Plaza owner Sohel Rana gets 3 years simple imprisonment

A Dhaka Court on Tuesday pronounced Sohel Rana, owner of the Rana Plaza, to three years simple imprisonment in a graft case.

The court also fined Sohel Rana Tk 50,000 and if the fine keeps unpaid, he will have to suffer three months more in jail in the case filed for not submitting his wealth statement to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

Judge Imrul Kayes of the Special Judge Court-6 handed down the verdict in presence of Sohel. This is for the first time Rana is jailed by a court in one of the six cases against him.

The ACC on May 21, 2015, lodged a case against Sohel Rana on charge of accumulating wealth illegally.

ACC Deputy Director Mahbubur Rahman enrolled the case with Ramna Police Station in the capital.

On April 2, 2015, the ACC sent a notice to Sohel Rana at Kashimpur jail in Gazipur asking him to show his wealth statement to it within the stipulated time.

Later, his wife presented an application to the ACC seeking time extension to submit the wealth report, but on May 18 it gave approval for the case against Sohel Rana canceling the plea.

The ACC framed a two-member probe body to know about the wealth of Sohel Rana after the Rana Plaza collapse on 24 April, 2013 that left 1,129 people killed and about 2,515 others injured.

According to the ACC probe report, he built two commercial buildings — Rana Plaza and Rana Tower — in Savar with ill-gotten money.

He also has a five-storey residential building in Savar and huge movable and immovable wealth.

Sohel Rana was held after the collapse on April 29, 2013.