Court Correspondent :
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, now in the prison, was not produced before the Special Court-5 of Dhaka yesterday in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case due to her illness while the court fixed April 22 for submission of argument in the case.
Earlier, on March 28, Judge Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman of the special court-5 set April 5 (Thursday) for hearing in the case.
Mosharraf Hossain Kajol, a lawyer of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), told the court that BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia is ill. She is suffering from arthritis. A medical board has been formed for her treatment. But she is refusing to take any kind of medicine prescribed by the physicians. For this, she was not produced before the court on Thursday. Khaleda Zia’s counsel Sanaullah Mia sought extension of her bail to the court. After hearing both the prosecution and the defence, the court set April 22 for next hearing in the case.
The ACC filed the Zia Charitable Trust graft case with Tejgaon Model Police Station August 8, 2011, accusing Khaleda Zia and three others of abusing power to raise funds for the trust from unknown sources.
Three other accused persons are- Harris Chowdhury, Political Secretary of the then PM Khaleda Zia between 2001 and 2006; Ziaul Islam Munna, Assistant Private Secretary (APS) to Harris; and Monirul Islam Khan, APS of former Dhaka city mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka.
On February 8, the special court awarded Khaleda Zia five years’ rigorous imprisonment (RI) in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case and sentenced her son Tarique Rahman, now acting BNP Chairman and four others to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment each. The court also fined them a total of Tk 2.10 crore, saying all the six convicts have to pay the fine in equal amounts. The ACC filed the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case with Ramna Model Police Station on July 3, 2008, accusing six of misappropriating over Tk 2.1 crore that came from a foreign bank as grants for orphans.
