BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, her son Tarique Rahman and seven others have been indicted in Zia Orphanage and Zia Charitable Trust graft cases on Wednesday.
The others indicted are Khaleda’s former political secretary Harris Chowdhury, his assistant personal secretary Ziaul Islam Munna and Manirul Islam Khan, former personal secretary of BNP leader Sadeque Hossain Khoka, late president Ziaur Rahman’s nephew Mominur Rahman, Khaleda’s former Principal Secretary Dr Kamal Uddin Siddique and BNP’s former lawmakers Kazi Salimul Haque and Sharfuddin Ahmed.
Newly appointed Judge of Special Judge Court 3 Basudev Roy has passed the indictment order in the afternoon.
Earlier in the day, the court rejected BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s petition seeking time to defer the delivery of the order on whether to accept charges in Zia Orphanage and Zia Charitable Trust graft cases.
Later, the defence lawyers led by Advocate Sanaullah Mia visited the judge at his room and placed a rejection review petition and one more petition regarding the filing of a petition against the rejection in the higher court.
On January 15 last year, Khaleda secured permanent bail in the cases and the court granted their last time petition to Khaleda until today on February 16 this year to frame the charge.
With this deferral, the court had adjourned the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case 41 times and the Zia Charitable Trust graft case 11 times for charge frame hearing.
Zia Charitable Trust graft case
On August 8, 2011, the ACC filed the case with Tejgaon police station against four people -- Khaleda, her former political secretary Harris Chowdhury, his assistant personal secretary Ziaul Islam Munna and Manirul Islam Khan, former personal secretary of BNP leader Sadeque Hossain Khoka -- on charge of abusing power for collecting funds from unknown sources.
The IO of the case pressed charges against the accused on January 16, 2012. Of them, Harris has been staying abroad since 2007 while Ziaul and Monirul are now on bail.
Zia Orphanage Trust graft case
The ACC filed the case with Ramna police station on July 3, 2008, accusing Khaleda, her son Tarique Rahman and four others, for misappropriating over Tk2.10 crore from the trust, the amount came as “grants” from a foreign bank.
The four accused are Mominur Rahman, nephew of late president Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda’s former Principal Secretary Dr Kamal Uddin Siddique, and BNP’s former lawmakers Kazi Salimul Haque and Sharfuddin Ahmed.
On August 5, 2010, the IO of the case submitted charge sheet.
