Separates court here on Tuesday granted bails to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in two cases filed over an arson attack on a bus at Jatrabari in the city last year and in Gatco graft case filed by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC). Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Mohammad Quamrul Hossain Molla and Judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar of Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-3 passed the orders after hearing the bail petitions in the two cases on Khaleda’s surrender to the courts. BNP leader Khandaker Mahbub Hossain also secured bail in the arson case. Later, the BNP Chairperson appeared before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court seeking bail in three other cases. Earlier in the morning, Khaleda Zia and Khandaker Mahbub Hossain surrendered to the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions. On March 30, this court issued warrants for the arrest of Khaleda and 27 BNP-Jamaat men in the case over the arson attack at Jatrabari in the city during the BNP-led 20-party’s blockade programme. Sessions Judge Mohammad Quamrul passed the order after accepting the chargesheet against 38 people submitted by Jahidul Islam, sub-inspector of the Jatrabari Police Station. The order came after the investigation officer showed Khaleda and 27 others fugitives, and appealed to the court to issue warrants for their arrests. On January 23 last year, at least 31 people suffered burn injuries after miscreants hurled two petrol bombs at a bus at Jatrabari intersection. One of the injured later died at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. Sub-inspector of Jatrabari Police Station KM Nuruzzaman filed two cases — one for killing and another for hurling petrol bombs — under the Special Powers Act on January 24, making Khaleda the mastermind of the attack. On February 23, the Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-3 ordered BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and 12 others to appear before it on April 13 in the Gatco graft case filed by the ACC. Judge Abu Ahmed passed the order after receiving the copy of a High Court verdict in this connection. On February 15, the High Court ordered Khaleda to surrender before the trial court in two months as the Court (HC) released the full text of its verdict rejecting her two writ petitions challenging the legality of the graft case and its inclusion under the Emergency Powers Act. On September 2, 2007, the ACC filed the Gatco graft case against Khaleda, her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko, Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami and 10 others for causing a loss of Tk 145.64 crore to the national exchequer by allegedly awarding the contract of container handling at the Chittagong port and the Dhaka’s Inland Container Depot to Gatco. Khaleda on September 27, 2007 filed a petition with the HC challenging the legality of the inclusion of the case under the Emergency Powers Act and seeking a stay order on the trial proceedings. In 2008, a High Court bench issued a rule and stayed the trial proceedings after hearing the petition of the BNP chief. In the same year, the graft case proceedings were stayed again as Khaleda filed another petition challenging its legality. — Dhaka, Apr 5 (UNB)
