The Appellate Division on Monday asked the lower court to finish the trial of the cases filed in connection with the Rana Plaza collapse within six months.

The court also scrapped the High Court’s verdict that granted interim bail to Sohel Rana, owner of the eight-storey building that collapsed on April 24 in 2013 killing more than 1000 people, mostly workers of readymade garment factories located in the building. 

A four-judge bench chaired by chief justice Obaidul Hassan passed the order after hearing a government’s appeal against the High Court verdict that granted bail to Sohel Rana on April 6 in 2023.

On July 10, 2023, the Appellate Division adjourned for six months the bail prayer of Sohel Rana.

A Rapid Action Battalion team, acting on a tip-off, arrested Rana at Benapole.

Rana was trying to flee the country following the prime minister’s order to arrest him.

The building came crashing down leaving at least 1,136 people dead and around 2,000 people injured.

Trial of the murder case had remained pending with the Dhaka District and Sessions Judges’ Court since December 2016.

A wave of shock spread across the world in the morning of April 24, 2013, when the eight-storey Rana Plaza, which housed clothing factories, a shopping mall and a bank, collapsed.