Staff Reporter :
The government on Tuesday filed an appeal petition with the Supreme Court seeking stay on the bail order to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in an arson case filed under the Special Powers Act 1974 in Cumilla in 2015.
After a brief hearing on the petition yesterday, Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hasan Foez Siddique sent the petition to the full bench of the apex court for its hearing on Thursday.
On Monday, the High Court granted six months’ bail to Khaleda Zia in the arson case filed after eight people were killed and 25-26 others injured after a bus was torched in Cumilla’s Chouddagram upazila on February 2 in 2015, during the anti-government agitation.
Meanwhile, a HC bench fixed August 12 for passing an order on whether the appeal filed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia seeking bail in a vandalism case is acceptable or not.
The bench of Justice A K M Asaduzzaman and Justice S M Mozibur Rahman fixed the date after hearing on the issue, said Deputy Attorney General Dr Md Bashir Ullah.
Following the appeal filed by Khaleda Zia, the HC on May 28 granted her bail for six months in the case filed for vandalising a covered van in Chouddagram area in Cumilla in 2015.
On June 26, the Supreme Court upheld the HC order that granted bail to the BNP chief in the case and also asked the HC to settle in seven days whether the appeal filed by her (Khaleda) seeking bail in this case is acceptable or not.
Khaleda Zia landed in jail on February 8 this year after a Dhaka court sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment in Zia Orphanage Trust case.
