Defamation cases: Govt seeks stay on Khaleda’s HC bail

The government has filed two separate petitions with the Supreme Court seeking stay on the High Court orders that granted bail to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in two separate defamation cases lodged in Narail and Dhaka.

Citing from the petitions filed on Wednesday and today respectively, Deputy Attorney General MA Kamrul Ahsan Khan Aslam told The Daily Star that Khaleda Zia has made derogatory comments about Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and questioned the number of martyrs in the Liberation War 1971.

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Khaleda gets interim bail in one case

So, Khaleda Zia cannot get bail in the defamation cases filed for making the objectionable remarks, DAG Aslam said, adding that Khaleda did not appear before the Narail court concerned although that court had issued summons against her in the case filed in Narail.

He also said no arrest warrant was executed against Khaleda Zia in connection with the defamation case filed in Dhaka.

The stay petitions will be moved soon before the chamber judge’s court of the Appellate Division of the SC, DAG Aslam added. 

On December 21, 2015, Khaleda during a discussion at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh in Dhaka raised questions about the actual number of Liberation War martyrs saying, “There are controversies over how many were martyred in the Liberation War. There are also many books and documents on the controversies.”

Reacting over the Khaleda’s remarks, Raihan Farooque Imam of Naragati in Narail filed a defamation case against her with the Cognisance Court on December 24, 2015.

On January 5, 2016, AB Siddiqui, president of Jananetri Parishad, filed another defamation case with Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka against the BNP chief for questioning the actual number of Liberation War martyrs at the same discussion.

Following two separate bail petitions filed by Khaleda Zia, the HC on Monday and Tuesday granted six months’ bail to her in the cases.