Shawdesh Desk:

The Anti-Corruption Commission on Monday arrested SMHI Faruque, one of the owners of FR Tower at Banani in the city, in a case filed over the forgery in the design of the building.

ACC public relations officer Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya said an ACC team, led by its deputy director Abu Bakar Siddique, arrested Faruq in Gulshan area.

The commission arrested another owner Tasvir Ul Islam, also chairman of Quasem Industries Limited, in Segunbagicha area on Sunday.

Tasvir, also president of Kurigram district unit BNP, embezzled Tk 5.65 crore from GSP Finance Company (Bangladesh) Limited through loan, said the ACC.

The national anti-graft body earlier arrested assistant director of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripaksha Shah Md Badrul Alam on July 30 over the design forgery.

It had filed two cases against 23 people for their alleged involvement in illegally extending Banani’s FR Tower beyond the permitted number of floors.

The building caught fire on March 27 last that left 25 people dead and 73 others injured.

During investigation, the ACC found that the 23-storey FR Tower had no fire alarm while it had narrow exit points and staircases and the fire exits were blocked.

The authorities had legally obtained permission for a 15-storey building but they made the FR Tower a 23-storey one over time.

The ACC sued 20 and five people respectively in the two cases filed over illegal extension of FR Tower from 16th to 18th and 19th to 23rd floors.

The accused also include Liakat Ali Khan Mukul, chairman of Rupayan Housing Estate Limited, the housing company that extended the building illegally; Muhammd Shawkat Ali, member of Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research; Syed Nazmul Huda, sub-divisional engineer of Public Works Department; and Shamsur Rahman, executive engineer of PWD.