BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has appeared in court on Sunday. She has been accused in accused in two cases of corruption for alleged defalcation of money of Zia Orphanage Trust.
She left her Gulshan home around 10am for Old Dhaka, according to informed sources.The cases over the embezzlement of Tk 50 million were being heard at Dhaka’s Third Metropolitan Special Judge’s Court, temporarily set up on the field next to Bakshibazar’s Government Aliya Madrasa.
Anti-Corruption Commission’s Deputy Director Harun-ur-Rashid, plaintiff in the cases – ‘Zia Orphanage Trust’ and ‘Zia Charitable Trust’ – was scheduled to testify before Judge Basudev Roy on Sunday.
The cases were filed during the 2-year rule of the last military-backed caretaker government of Fakhruddin Ahmed. Similar cases, filed also against leaders of other parties that are now in government, were withdrawan for being ‘political’. Cases against BNP leaders have increased during the last nearly six years.
Khaleda Zia’s counsels had filed petitions before the Supreme Court challenging the appointment of judge in the court in which the two cases are pending. Those petitions have however been turned turned down in both the benches of the apex court. A Dhaka court on Sunday noon has deferred the deposition hearing of Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust graft cases against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia till November 24.
Judge Bashudev Roy of the special Judge Court-3 passed the order after Khaleda Zia’s lawyers submitted two separate time petitions before the court.
Khaleda’s lawyer Khandakar Mahbub Hossain said, The court has granted our petition as the hearing of the BNP chief’s appeal in the cases is pending at the Appellate Division.
He said, We informed the court that a rally of BNP is scheduled to be held on November 26, so Khaleda Zia might not be able to appear before the court on that day. In reply, the court said it will be seen at that time.
After the hearing, ACC lawyer Mosharraf Hossain Kajol alleged that the defence was making the trial process lengthy by filling time pleas repeatedly. – GreenWatch Dhaka Desk
