Court Correspondent :The Special Judge Court-3 of Dhaka yesterday (Wednesday) deferred recording the depositions of the prosecution witnesses till September 10 in the Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust graft cases filed against BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and others.Judge Basudev Roy of the court passed the order after BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia appeared in the makeshift court in the city’s Bakshibazar at about 1 pm.Meanwhile, the Anti -Corruption Commission (ACC) Deputy Directors Harunur Rashid Khan and Md Ibrahim were present in the courtroom to testify. But lawyers appearing on behalf of Khaleda Zia sought adjournment of recording the depositions of witnesses as the leave-to-appeal is yet to be disposed of by the apex court. The court mentioned that the recording of testimony will remain pending until the Appellate DivisionCops-JCD activistsof the Supreme Court resolves the leave-to-appeal filed by BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia against a High Court order that rejected her two writ petitions.Earlier, the lawyer for the BNP Chairperson submitted time petition to the Special Judge Court-3 in the two cases.A stray incident of chase and counter chase took place between police and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) activists and BNP supporters when the BNP Chairperson reached the court area on the occasion.The JCD activists hurled some brick chips at the police, whilst the law enforcers lobbed several rounds of teargas shells to bring the situation under control. Police dispersed the party leaders and activists.Steps for additional security of the area were taken since the morning of the day. A large number of police were deployed to tighten the security. Moreover, close circuit cameras were placed at different points of the roads of the area to keep the overall situation under watch of the enforcers. On the occasion, the BNP and the JCD leaders and activists gathered on the roads around Aliya Madrasa and chanted various slogans. Besides, pro-BNP lawyers and top leaders of the party also went to the court. On July 27, Judge Basudev Roy of the Special Judge Court-3 deferred the hearing until September 3 (Wednesday) in the two graft cases after a counsel for Khaleda, submitted two separate petitions seeking adjournment of hearing in the cases.On August 8, 2011, the ACC filed the Zia Charitable Trust graft case with Tejgaon Police Station accusing four people, including Khaleda Zia, of abusing power in raising funds for the trust from unknown sources.ACC Deputy Director Harunur Rashid, also an Investigation Officer (IO) of the case, pressed charges against the accused on January 16, 2012.Besides, the ACC filed the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on July 3, 2008 with Ramna Police Station accusing Khaleda Zia, her eldest son Tareque Rahman, now living in the UK after securing bail, and four others for misappropriating over Tk 2.10 crore which came as grants from a foreign bank for orphans.On August 5, 2010, ACC deputy director Harunur Rashid submitted the charge-sheet to the court in the case against six people, including BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.BNP Chief’s adviser and the Vice-President of Bangladesh Bar Council, Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, BNP Standing Committee Member Barrister Rafiqul Islam Mia and BNP Joint-Secretary General and the secretary of Supreme Court Bar Association, Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon appeared on behalf of Khaleda Zia in the day’s hearing on the two graft cases.On the other hand, ACC Special Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajal appeared in the court on behalf of the anti-corruption watchdog.
