The High Court has rejected a petition filed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia seeking the court's directives on the lower court to take fresh deposition of the plaintiff in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.
The bench of Justices Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and JBM Hassan passed the order on Monday after hearing the arguement, ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said.
Khaleda submitted the petition through her lawyer on June 14. In the petition she prayed to expunge the deposition and sought a rule on the matter and pleads for freezing the case proceedings until it is resolved.
Dhaka’s Third Special Judge’s Court has been holding the trial of the graft cases against Khaleda.
The court has already recorded the testimony of the plaintiff Harun-or-Rashid, also director of the Anti-Corruption Commission, in one of the cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The court heard the plaintiff’s testimony in absence of Khaleda Zia as she had skipped several hearings.
In her petition, Khaleda said the Special Judge Court 3 of Dhaka has recorded the statement in her absence for six days.
As per a relevant rule, the court has to take the deposition of a witness in the presence of the accused but a Dhaka court did not follow the rule, she said.
On May 25, the Special Judge Court 3 of Dhaka had rejected a plea by Khaleda’s lawyers to scrap the testimony and set June 18 for the next hearing.
The prosecution that date argued that Khaleda has several times sought time as she could not attend the court and the court granted that time petition. She did not appeal to halt the court proceedings while she was absent.
The BNP chief’s lawyers, however, following the fixing of the new date, moved the High Court against the trial court’s order.
