A special court yesterday recorded testimony of the first prosecution witness, also the plaintiff, in Zia Orphanage Trust case filed against former prime minister Khaleda Zia, her elder son Tarique Rahman and four others for misappropriating funds.
BNP chief Khaleda did not appear before the court yesterday citing security reasons amid hartal, called by the 20-party alliance.
After hearing both the prosecution and the defence counsels for two hours, Judge Basudev Roy of the Third Special Judge’s Court partly recorded the deposition of Harun-or-Rashid, a deputy director of the Anti-Corruption Commission.
He is also the investigation officer and plaintiff of Zia Charitable Trust case in which Khaleda and three others are accused. Both the cases have same witnesses and the trials will continue simultaneously.
The same court on March 19 indicted the persons in the two cases. However, commencement of the trials has been delayed because of frequent adjournment petitions filed by the defence.
Amid tight security in and outside the courtroom, the ACC official in his deposition said: “Then prime minister Khaleda Zia during her tenure between 1991 and 1996 opened a current account with Sonali Bank’s Ramna Corporate Branch for her orphanage fund.”
The court could record only a few sentences amid repeated objections raised by the defence and later adjourned the proceedings until October 13.
Before recording the testimony, the judge rejected an adjournment petition of the defence which states: “The former prime minister could not appear before the court considering security and political circumstances.’’
The defence argued that the proceedings should be adjourned as two petitions filed by Khaleda regarding legality of the indictment order were pending with the Appellate Division.
“The matter may be heard by the Chamber Judge on October 14,” defence lawyer Musud Uddin Ahmed Taluk told the court.
On the other hand, ACC’s acting chief prosecutor Musharraf Hossain Kajal argued that the court could record the depositions since the defence could not place any document of the higher court that bars the trial.
Even though Khaleda did not appear before the makeshift court set up in the capital’s Bakshibazar, a chair was kept in front of the accused box for her.
Of the six accused in the case, former BNP lawmaker Kazi Salimul Haque Kamal and businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed were present at the court and sought extension of their bails.
The other accused are Khaleda’s son and BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, Gen Ziaur Rahman’s nephew Mominur Rahman and Khaleda’s former principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui.
They are facing the charges for committing criminal breach of trust and other charge under sections 5 (2) of the Corruption Prevention Act and section 409 of the Penal Code. The charges carry highest punishment of life-term if found guilty.
In the trust case, Khaleda and five others have been charged for misappropriating Tk2.1 crore between November 13, 1993 and March 28, 2007.
In the Zia Charitable Trust case, two out of four accused appeared before the court. They are government official Ziaul Islam Munna and a BNP leader’s assistant personal secretary Monirul Islam Khan. Another accused Harris Chowdhury is absconding.
The case says Khaleda and three others collected Tk3.15 crore illegally in the name of the charitable trust and subsequently withdrawing the money in an attempt to misappropriate it.
ACC official Harun investigated both the cases and submitted charge sheet in the orphanage trust case on August 5, 2010 and the charitable trust case on January 16, 2012.
