Zia Trust Graft Case
Judge unhappy over time petition by defence
A senior special judge yesterday expressed his discontent when the defence of the Zia Charitable Trust graft case prayed for the fifth time to defer the delivery of the order on whether to accept charges against the accused.
However, Judge Zahirul Haque of Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka deferred the delivery to August 28.
The accused are BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia; her former political secretary, Harris Chowdhury; assistant private secretary (APS) of Harris, Ziaul Islam Munna; and former Dhaka City Corporation mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka's APS, Monirul Islam Khan.
The first delivery of the order was deferred on May 31 on grounds of Khaleda being preoccupied with the budget session of parliament. As her party enforced a hartal on April 29, the court had to defer the delivery over her security concerns for the second time that day.
On March 18, the deferment came on the grounds of her preoccupation with the party's organisational activities. On July 1, the postponement came on the grounds of Khaleda being busy in distributing relief in Chittagong.
Khaleda's lawyer Sanaullah Miah filed the time petition stating that Khaleda, the opposition leader in the Parliament, could not appear before the court due to security reasons. However, the petition did not mention how Khaleda's security had been threatened.
At first the court denied accepting the petition.
Later, the court accepted the petition when defence lawyer Masud Ahmed Talukder convinced the judge, saying that they would not, under any circumstances, seek more time to defer the charge acceptance hearing of the case.
The judge said he considered the time petition of the defence as the final one and deferred the hearing for the last time.
The court also said Khaleda need not appear before it during the time of taking into cognisance the charges as a huge number of people gather and disrupt the court proceedings when she appears.
The Anti-Corruption Commission, on August 8 last year, filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station, accusing the four of abusing power in raising funds for the trust from unknown sources.
Khaleda got a permanent bail in the case on February 2. Harris has been on the run since the case was filed.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments