Dhaka, June 24 – The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Sunday fixed July 2 for delivering its order on the appeal filed by the government against the High Court order that granted bail to BNP chief Khaleda Zia in the murder case over the 2015 petrol bombing of a bus in Comilla’s Chauddagram. A four-member appellate bench led by the chief justice set the date yesterday after hearing on the appeal filed by the government against the High Court order granting bail to the BNP chief in the case.
The same bench of the apex court also fixed Monday (today) for hearing on another appeal filed by the government against the High Court order that granted bail to the BNP chief in connection with the case filed under the Special Powers Act over the arson of a covered van in Comilla.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the state during Sunday’s hearing while Advocates Mohammad Ali, Khandker Mahbub Hossain, Moudud Ahmed, Zainul Abedin and Mahbub Uddin Khokan represented Khaleda Zia.
Earlier on May 30, the chamber court stayed the High Court (HC) order that granted bail for six months to BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia in two Comilla arson cases.
The government had on May 28 filed separate appeal petitions with the chamber court of the Appellate Division for staying the operation of the HC order passed a few hours ago to grant six months’ bail to the BNP chief in two arson cases in Comilla.
On the same day (May 28), the HC bench—comprising Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice JBM Hassan—granted six months’ bail for Khaleda Zia in the cases filed over vandalism in Chouddagram, Comilla, on January 2015, and the killing of eight and injuring 25–26 others by setting a passenger bus ablaze in Chouddagram on February 2, 2015.
The two cases were filed in Comilla on charges of vandalising vehicles in 2015. Eight people were killed and at least 20 injured when assailants hurled a petrol bomb at a bus in Jagmohanpur area of Chouddagram under Comilla district during the BNP-led alliance’s protests on February 3, 2015.
Two cases—one under the Explosive Substances Act and another for murder—were filed against Khaleda in connection with the incident.
Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Commission lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan yesterday moved before the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman—for quick hearing on an appeal filed by the BNP chief Khaleda Zia against the lower court verdict that sentenced her five years jail in connection with the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.
Later, Khan told The Independent that the matter of Khaleda Zia’s appeal would come up in the Monday’s cause list of the High Court for fixing a date of hearing on the appeal.
On February 8, the Special Judge’s Court-5 of Dhaka sentenced Khaleda to five years’ rigorous imprisonment in the graft case.
On March 13, the High Court granted her bail for four months in the case and on May 16, the Appellate Division of the SC had also upheld the HC order that had granted bail to Khaleda in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.
However, the BNP chief was not freed from jail, as she was shown arrested in some other cases filed with different police stations in Comilla, Dhaka, Narail and Panchagarh, including the three in which she has already sought bail. The BNP chairperson is currently facing a total of 36 cases.- Staff Reporter
