A special Dhaka court yesterday failed to fully record a witness submission in a graft case against BNP chief Khaleda Zia and five others amid hullabaloo by defence counsels who said the court did not have the right to do it.
Hearing both sides for several hours, Bashudev Roy from the Dhaka Special Judge’s Court 3 started recording the deposition of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Deputy Director Harun-or-Rashid, plaintiff of the Zia Orphanage Trust Corruption case.
However, around 4:15pm, minutes after the deposition began, the judge had to leave the court as the defence lawyers started shouting inside the court.
They loudly objected saying the judge did not have the legal right to record the statement as the High Court had still not settled Khaleda’s petition for transferring the case to another court.
The lawyers also said the defendants should therefore be granted more time.
However, ACC’s acting chief prosecutor Musharraf Hossain Kajal argued that it was fully legal because the HC had not barred recording of deposition either.
On Sunday, Supreme Court’s Appellate Division dismissed a leave-to-appeal petition filed by Khaleda in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case, clearing the last obstacle to proceed with the case.
On November 23, the apex court dismissed two other leave-to-appeal petitions regarding the acceptance of charges and indictment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.
However, the former premier on Sunday filed another petition – this time seeking transfer of the two cases filed against her and others from the Special Judge’s Court 3.
Her lawyers were referring to this latest petition while they were shoutng in court yesterday.
Trial against former premier Khaleda, her eldest son Tarique Rahman and four others began on September 22 for misappropriating more than Tk2.1 crore from the orphanage trust’s fund when BNP was in power.
The BNP chief however did not appear at the makeshift court set up in the capital’s Bakshibazar during the proceedings yesterday but a chair was kept empty in front of the dock for her.
Police in plain clothes kept the witness box encircled when Harun was speaking. Later, the judge from his chamber adjourned the proceedings until December 8.
According to the case statements, Khaleda Zia, during her tenure as the prime minister from 1991 to 1996, opened a current account with the Sonali Bank’s Ramna Corporate Branch for the orphanage fund.
The plaintiff yesterday told the court that on June 9, 1991, the current account received $1.255m from a Saudi Arab-based private bank. The said amount of Tk2.1 crore was allegedly withdrawn by the accused from that account.
Khaleda, her son Tarique, nephew Mominur Rahman and former principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, former BNP lawmaker Kazi Salimul Haque Kamal and businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed have been charged with breach of trust under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Penal Code.
The charges carry life term as the highest punishment.
Of the accused, Tarique, who has been living in London with family since 2008, Kamal Uddin and Mominur are being tried in absentia.
On March 19, Judge Basudev Roy of Dhaka’s Third Metropolitan Special Judges Court indicted Khaleda in this and the Zia Charitable Trust Corruption case, both of which were then at the deposition stage.
