Two days have elapsed since Dhaka Special Judge’s Court 3 issued a warrant for the arrest of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, but the police station concerned was yet to receive it as of yesterday.
“No police station of Dhaka Metropolitan Police has yet received any such warrant,” said Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of the Detective Branch of police, yesterday.
“We have only heard that the court issued a warrant for the arrest of the BNP chairperson but we have not received it yet. Once we get the order we will take steps as per the court directive.”
On Wednesday, the Special Judge’s Court issued the warrant for the arrest of Khaleda and two others accused in two graft cases for failing to appear before the court during a hearing.
In the order, the court said prime accused Khaleda Zia had so far appeared in court on only seven of 63 scheduled dates.
According to the procedures, after a court issues a warrant the assistant bench officer prepares the order document and gets it signed by the judge concerned and sends it to a bench known as “court process server” for dispatch. Warrants can also be delivered by hand.
A warrant for arrest is generally issued under section 75 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
It mentions the name of the police station concerned, its officials and their designations, asking them to produce an accused in the court on a specific hearing date.
Ariful Islam, assistant bench officer of Special Judge’s Court 3, is supposed to know all about the warrant for Khaleda’s arrest, but yesterday he said it was beyond his jurisdiction and knew nothing about it.
Even Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol told the Dhaka Tribune that he did not have any idea.
Advocate Rabiul Islam Rabi, a member of a Dhaka court, said once the police station concerned receives the warrant it can arrest the accused.
If the officials of the police station concerned want to delay the arrest, they can do so as they are asked to produce the accused in the court on a particular date for hearing.
Police could arrest an accused just a couple of hours or a day before the hearing, he said.
In the Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust cases, Khaleda Zia and five others were charged with misappropriation of Tk2.1 crore after withdrawal of the amount from the trust fund between November 13, 1993 and March 28, 2007.
The court fixed March 4 for hearing the case next.
As of filing of this report yesterday evening, the arrest warrant did not reach any police station.