Staff Reporter :
The Appellate Division of the Suprme Court on Sunday set July 2 for delivering its decision on the government’s appeal seeking cancellation of the bail order granted by the High Court Division in a murder case filed against BNP leaders and activists.
In the case, Khaleda Zia has been accused of abetting the killing of eight passengers of a bus that was set ablaze at Chouddagram, Cumilla, during the BNP’s road blockade programme across the country in 2015 in protest against holding one-party parliamentary polls on January 5, 2014.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, will hear another government appeal seeking to cancel the High Court Division’s order that had granted bail to Khaleda in other case accused of abetting burning of a covered van at Chouddagram, Cumilla, during the nationwide roads and highways blockade programme in 2015.
The decision came on the first day of the Supreme Court that started its functions in full swing after 21 days Eid vacation and other purposes.
On May 29, Appellate Division’s Chamber Judge, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, stayed until May 31, Khaleda Zia’s ad-interim bails which the HC had granted on May 28, in the two cases.
Later the regular bench of the Appellate Division extended the stay order till June 24.
On May 16 the Appellate Division upheld four months’ bail granted to her by the High Court Division in the Zia Orphanage Trust case.
But the jail authorities did not release Khaleda Zia as she was shown arrested in the two other cases, one for burning the bus at Chouddagram and the other for abetting burning the covered van during the same blockade at Chouddagram.
Advocate A J Mohammad Ali, Advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain, Barrister Moudud Ahmed, Advocate Zainul Abedin and Barrister A M Mahbub Uddin Khokan took part in the hearing in the Appellate Division on behalf of Khaleda Zia, while Attorney General Mahbubey Alam stood for the State.
