Death of Fatima Begum (50) who fell to her death on a construction site on 14 August 2007 whilst working to construct a building for Opex Garments in Kafrul, Dhaka.

The investigation took place in early January 2008. The investigator went to the local police station in Kafrul and was informed by Munshi Abdul Qayum that, no case of unnatural death or no general diary entry or no case of any other kind had been filed in relation to Fatema’s death.

A few days later, the investigator went to the site of the Opex Group at Mirpur-13, which was under construction, and spoke to the supervisor of the security guard division of that institution. He said that although he was not on duty at that time, he heard that an elderly female worker had died. She was involved in carrying, on her head, the construction-materials, including cement and brick-dust to the builder who was on the roof of the first floor.  She was using the makeshift temporary stairs made of bricks for the purpose. However, suddenly the temporary stairs collapsed, and she fell down with the materials on her head and died.

As a result of this the construction work of the building was stopped for a number of days this death. However, the supervisor informed said that although the construction work now had started again, the previous workers were no longer work here. He said he didn’t have any information on the addresses of the workers.

This investigator then spoke to Md. Kamrul, Admin Officer of Opex Garments, he refused to give any information regarding the incident.