Staff Reporter :
The High Court (HC) on Thursday fixed Sunday for passing necessary order regarding the bail petition of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in Zia Orphanage Trust case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
The HC Bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim set the date after Khaleda Zia’s lawyer Advocate Zainul Abedin prayed to it to pass an order on the bail petition.
Zainul Abedin told the court that this Bench on February 22 ordered the trial court to send the case records to it in 15 days, which expired on March 7.
When the court asked Zainul whether the case records have reached the HC, he replied that he does not know it. Then the court fixed the date for passing necessary order on this issue.
The HC has jurisdiction to pass an order on the bail petition of Khaleda even if the case records are not received by it, Advocate Zainul told the journalists.
On February 25, the HC Bench heard the bail petition of Khaleda Zia and said that it would pass an order on it after receiving the case records from the lower court.
On February 8, Special Judge’s Court-5 of Dhaka sentenced Khaleda Zia to five years’ rigorous imprisonment after it had found her and five others guilty of the charge.
The court also sentenced Khaleda’s elder son Tarique Rahman, now the Acting Chairman of BNP, and four others to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment each, and fined them a total of Tk 2.10 crore, saying that all the six convicts have to pay the fine in equal amounts.
The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case with Ramna Police Station in July 2008, accusing the six of misappropriating over Tk 2.1 crore that came from a foreign bank as grants for orphans.
