Staff Reporter :
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday extended the stay on the High Court order that granted bail to BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia in two criminal cases filed in Cumilla.
It also asked the government to file two separate leave to appeal petitions with this court against the High Court order by June 24.
After hearing two separate petitions moved by the government, a three-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain fixed June 24 for
hearing the leave to appeal petitions.
One of the cases in which Khaleda secured bail by the HC on Monday was filed in connection with vandalising vehicles in Cumilla’s Chouddagram on January 25, 2015. The other was filed over killing eight people and injuring 25-26 others by setting fire to a bus in Chouddagram on February 2, 2015.
On last Monday, the High Court bench of Justice A K M Asaduzzaman and Justice J B M Hassan granted bail to BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia for six months in two criminal cases filed in Cumilla. But without wasting time, the state counsels moved petitions against her bails and managed to secure the Chamber Judge’s stay order on the bails on Tuesday.
Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hasan Foez Siddique sent the petitions to the full bench of the Appellate Division for further hearing. After hearing the petitions, the full bench of the Appellate Division extended the stay order.
Advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain, Advocate A J Mohammad Ali, Advocate Zainul Abedin and Barrister A M Mahbub Uddin Khokan appeared took part in the hearing on behalf of BNP Chairperson while Attorney General Mahbubey Alam stood for the State.
On May 20, Khaleda’s lawyer M Masud Rana filed the petitions with the consent of the BNP chief.
Earlier, on May 16, the SC upheld a HC order that granted bail to Khaleda for four months in Zia Orphanage Trust case in which she was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
But she is still in the jail as she has been shown arrested in seven other cases.
According to media reports, the BNP chairperson is now facing a total of 36 cases.
Meanwhile, the High Court bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim refused to grant bail to Khaleda Zia in two other cases filed on charge of observing “fake” birthday and “demeaning” the national flag.
The HC, however, ordered the Metropolitan Magistrate Court concerned in Dhaka to dispose of the bail petitions filed by Khaleda in the cases as early as possible.
Khaleda filed the petition with the HC on May 22 seeking bail in the two cases lodged in Dhaka in 2016.
One of the cases was filed by journalist Kazi Zahirul Islam on August 30, 2016, accusing Khaleda of observing birthday on August 15 on ‘false date’.
The other, a defamation suit, was filed by A B Siddique, President of Bangladesh Jananetri Parishad, on November 3, 2016, for allowing a Jamaat Minister to use the national flag on their vehicle after BNP came to power in 2001.
