Owner of collapsed Bangladesh factory may face murder charge

Police in Bangladesh are investigating possible murder charges against the owner of a shoddily built factory that collapsed nearly two weeks ago.

The legal development came as officials confirmed that the death toll from the country’s worst industrial disaster had reached 645.

Sheuli Akter, the wife of clothing maker Jahangir Alam, filed the complaint with Dhaka magistrate Wasim Sheikh, saying her husband and other workers were “pushed towards death” by building owner Mohammed Sohel Rana and two others.

Alam was employed in New Wave Styles Ltd, one of the five garment factories housed in the eight-storey Rana Plaza that collapsed on April 24 as workers started their morning shift even though cracks had developed in the building.