The Supreme Court (SC) on Sunday rejected the leave-to-appeal petition filed by BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia against a High Court order on a plea for scrapping testimony of the plaintiff in the Zia Orphanage Trust case. A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha passed the order. Khaleda on September 16, 2015, filed the leave-to-appeal petition with the SC against the HC order. After the SC order, Anti-Corruption Commission’s lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said there was no more legal bar to continue the trial proceedings of Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia. Earlier on June 29, 2015, HC rejected the petition filed by Khaleda for scrapping the testimony of Harun-or-Rashid and recording his fresh statement in her presence at the court. The bench comprising Justice Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice JBM Hassan passed the order, saying there was nothing illegal in recording the statement of the IO, Harun-or-Rashid, in the graft case. Khaleda can cross-examine the IO and therefore, she can find out whether he has given wrong statement. On June 15 last year, the BNP chief filed the criminal revision petition with the HC against the rejection of her petition by the lower court. Earlier on May 25, a Dhaka court rejected the defence lawyer’s petition for scraping the deposition given by the plaintiff of the case on six dates in absence of accused Khaleda. On July 3, 2008, the ACC filed the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case with Ramna Police Station accusing Khaleda Zia, her eldest son Tarique Rahman, now living in the UK after securing bail, and four others for misappropriating over Tk2.10 crore which came as grants from a foreign bank for orphans. On August 5, 2010, Harunur Rashid submitted a charge-sheet to the court in the case against six people, including BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia. — Dhaka, Feb 14 (UNB)
