HC to hear Zubaida’s plea against graft case Apr 22

The High Court today fixed April 22 for holding final hearing on a seven-year-old petition challenging the legality of a corruption case against Zubaida Rahman, wife of BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman.

The bench of Justice Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice JBM Hassan set the date after the Anti-Corruption Commission’s lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan prayed to the court for its disposal.

On September 26, 2007, the ACC filed the case against Tarique, Zubaida and her mother Iqbal Mand Banu for amassing assets through illegal means and concealing information in their wealth statements.

According to the charge sheet, Tarique accumulated wealth worth around Tk 2.75 crore beyond his known sources of income and hid information about assets worth around Tk 2.17 crore in his statement.

Zubaida and her mother were accused of aiding and abetting Tarique.

Following the petition filed by Zubaida, now in London along with Tarique, the HC on April 8, 2008 issued a rule asking the government to explain why the case proceedings against Zubaida, a doctor, should not be scrapped.

The HC on April 2 this year allowed the ACC to become a party in the rule so that the commission’s lawyer can place its argument during hearing of the petition.