Members of the probe committee, formed under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, addressing the journalists, on April 1, 2019 Mehedi Hasan

Rajuk officials told the probe committee that they have lost the documents

Rajuk has failed to provide the building plan of Banani's FR Tower, where a fire incident claimed the lives 26 people and left several others injured.

The eight-member probe committee formed by the Ministry of Housing and Public Works—and led by Md Yakub Ali Patwary, an additional secretary of the ministry—visited the site, stayed there for at least half-an-hour, and remarked this around 11:30am on Monday.

Member of the probe committee, Kazi Golam Nasir, as well as the chief architect of the department of architecture under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works—while addressing the press in front of the FR Tower—said: "We have assessed the accident site.

"We are planning to compare the Rajuk-granted building plan and the building plan provided by the owners of the FR Tower so that we can investigate if there are any differences between the two.

"We were able to collect the owners copy of the building plan for the FR Tower but Rajuk is yet to provide us with their copy. When asked for the files related to FR Tower, they said they have lost the documents as well as the building plan."

"According to the 1984 Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC), leaving any particular length of space between two buildings was not mandatory.

"But, according to the 1996 BNBC, building owners had to keep sufficient amount of service space between two buildings so that vehicles and supports of emergency services could enter and operate easily," he added.

He said: "We are still investigating. Necessary steps will be taken upon further findings."