2 Cases in Comilla: SC stays HC bail orders for Khaleda

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia. File photo

The Supreme Court yesterday stayed the High Court orders that granted bail to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in two criminal cases filed in Comilla.

Chamber judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order after two petitions were filed by the government seeking stay on the HC bail orders. 

He also sent the government's petitions to its full bench for their hearings tomorrow.

One of the cases in which Khaleda secured bail by the HC on Monday was filed in connection with vandalising vehicles in Comilla's Chouddagram on January 25, 2015. The other was filed over killing eight people and injuring 25-26 others by setting fire on a bus in Chouddagram on February 2, 2015.

Hours after the HC bail orders that day, the government submitted two petitions with the SC seeking stay on the orders. 

During yesterday's hearing, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the SC chamber judge that Khaleda should not get bail in the cases as the incidents of setting fire on the vehicles and their vandalism happened at her instruction and instigation.

Khaleda's lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain opposed the government's stay petitions, saying that there was no specific allegation against his client and her name was not mentioned in the first information reports of the cases.

Besides, most of the accused in the cases have already secured bail from the HC. So, Khaleda should get bail in the cases, he argued.

The lawyer told The Daily Star that Khaleda could not be out of jail even if the apex court upheld her HC bail orders tomorrow, as she is arrested in other cases.    

In another development, the HC yesterday fixed tomorrow for passing orders on two petitions filed by the BNP chief seeking bail in two other cases lodged in Dhaka in 2016 on charges of observing “fake” birthday and “demeaning” Bangladesh's national flag.  

After hearing the petitions, the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim fixed the date.

During the hearing, Khaleda's lawyer Khandker Mahbub prayed for her bail, saying that she was ill and 74-year-old and the cases were filed under bailable sections.

Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin opposed the bail petitions, saying that Khaleda could not get bail from the HC as she did not seek the bail from the trial courts concerned.

He told this correspondent that the HC would pass orders on the bail petitions tomorrow after hearing arguments from the attorney general.

One of the two cases was filed by Gazi Zahirul Islam, former joint general secretary of Dhaka Union of Journalists, on August 30, 2016, with a Dhaka court against Khaleda for allegedly celebrating her “fake” birthday on August 15 every year.

Another case was lodged by AB Siddique, president of Bangladesh Jananetri Parishad, a pro-Awami League organisation, with a Dhaka court on November 3 that year, accusing Khaleda and her late husband and former president Ziaur Rahman of “undermining” the country's map and national flag.

On May 16, the apex court upheld an HC order that granted bail to Khaleda for four months in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case in which she was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

But she could not walk out of prison despite the judgment as she was shown arrested in seven other cases.