HC hearing on Khaleda's bail plea starts

The High Court yesterday started the hearing on a petition filed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia seeking bail in a murder case.

The case was filed in connection with killing eight people and injuring 25-26 others by setting a bus on fire in Chauddagram of Comilla on February 2, 2015.

After concluding yesterday's hearing, the HC fixed 2:00pm today for resuming it, Deputy Attorney General Md Bashirullah told The Daily Star. 

Meanwhile, the BNP chief yesterday filed two bail petitions with the HC in two other cases lodged in Dhaka in 2016 on charges of observing “fake” birthday and “demeaning” Bangladesh's national flag.   

With the two, Khaleda has submitted five petitions to the HC seeking bail in five cases after the Supreme Court's Appellate Division upheld her bail on May 16 in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case. 

The HC bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice JBM Hassan started hearing arguments on the bail petition in the Comilla murder case at 2:25pm yesterday.

During yesterday's hearing, Khaleda's lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain told the HC that his client was not involved in the incident mentioned in the case and her name was not in the first information report.

The court had already granted bail to many of the 77 accused in the case, he said, adding that Khaleda was implicated in the charge sheet as the 51st accused.

Mahbub argued that three accused gave confessional statements before the magistrate concerned, but they did not mention Khaleda's name.

On May 20, the BNP chief filed three separate petitions with the HC seeking bail in three cases that include the murder case in Comilla's Chauddagram.

Of the three cases against Khaleda, two were filed in Comilla.

The third case was lodged against Khaleda for making a statement on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the number of freedom fighters. One Raihan Faruki Imam filed the case with a Narail court on September 24, 2015.

Khaleda made the comment on December 21, 2015, at a meeting at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, in the capital where she said Sheikh Mujib did not want the independence of the country, but instead wanted to be the prime minister of Pakistan.

She also said there was a controversy over the number of freedom fighters.

Yesterday, the BNP chief submitted two petitions with the HC seeking bail in two cases.

One of them 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 filed by AB Siddique, president of Bangladesh Jananetri Parishad, 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. 

M Masud Rana, who filed the bail petitions on behalf of the BNP chief, told this correspondent that they would move the two petitions before the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim next week.

There are arrest warrants in seven cases against Khaleda, he added.

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 following the SC judgment as she was shown arrested in seven other cases.