By Mizan Rahman/Dhaka
Bangladesh National Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia has filed two separate revision petitions with the high court challenging a lower court’s orders that indicted the former prime minister along with her elder son and party’s senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman in two graft cases.
In her petitions, Zia sought cancellation of the indictment orders and stated that the indictment orders were illegal as the judge did not ask her whether she was innocent.
She claimed that the cases were filed only to politically harass her. BNP joint secretary general Mahbub Uddin Khokon confirmed the matter. He said the petitions have been filed under the code of criminal procedure and the court has fixed April 16 for hearing the pleas.
Earlier on March 19, newly-appointed judge Basudev Roy of the Dhaka’s special judge’s court-3 passed the indictment order rejecting the defence’s time petitions. It also fixed April 21 for starting the trials with testimonies of the complainants in the cases.
Six people including Zia and Tarique were indicted in the Zia Orphanage Trust case for embezzling over 2.1mn taka ($269,230) by forming the “fake” trust in 1991. In the other case involving Zia Charitable Trust, the ACC accused four people including the BNP chief of raising funds by abusing power of the PMO during 2001-06.
The ACC filed the graft case on July 3, 2008 with Ramna police station accusing Zia, her son Tarique and four others for embezzling over 2.1mn taka by forming the “fake” trust in 1991. The money came as grants from a foreign bank for the orphans.
On August 5, 2010, ACC deputy director Harunur Rashid submitted a charge-sheet and named 37 witnesses in the case.
According to the case statement, the accused embezzled the money by establishing Zia Orphanage Trust that “exists only on paper.”
On August 8, 2011, the ACC filed the case with Tejgaon police station accusing four of abusing power in raising funds for the trust from unknown sources.
ACC official Harunur, also investigation officer of the case, pressed the charges on January 16, 2012. He showed 37 people as prosecution witnesses in the case.
According to the charge-sheet, money for setting up the trust was collected from different sources, using the influence of the Prime Minister’s Office during the 2001-06 tenure of the BNP-led government.
