The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s two leave-to-appeal petitions, clearing the way for continuing trial proceedings in Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.
The five-member Appellate Division bench, led by Chief Justice Md. Mozammel Hossain, passed the orders.
Khaleda filed one appeal with the apex court in 2011 challening a High Court order that had validated the acceptance of charges against her by a lower court in the case and another on July 26 last year challenging another High Court verdict that also approved her indictment in the same case.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters that after the SC order, there remained no bar to continuing trial proceedings in the case.
Khaleda’s counsel Joynul Abedin told reporters: “The case was filed for politically undermining the Zia family. We will take next steps about this following Khaleda Zia’s instructions.”
Khaleda has yet another appeal filed with the apex court against a High Court order that upheld a lower court’s charge framing order against her in Zia Charitable Trust corruption case. The order on the appeal is to be delivered today.
On August 8, 2011, the Anti-Corrruption Commission filed the Zia Charitable Trust graft case with Tejgaon police station accusing four people, including Khaleda Zia, for abusing power in raising funds for the trust from unknown sources.
The ACC filed the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on July 3, 2008 accusing Khaleda, her elder son Tarique Rahman and four others for misappropriating over Tk2.10 crore, which came as grants from a foreign bank for orphans.
The Dhaka Special Court 3 was supposed to record prosecution witnesses’s statements yesterday in the cases but the court fixed December 1 for it in response to two separate time-petitions filed by the defence counsel.
