Khaleda, Tarique indicted

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia arrives at a Dhaka court in Kotwali area on Wednesday. The former prime minister appeared before the court in connection with Zia Orphanage and Zia Charitable Trust graft cases. Photo: TV grab

A Dhaka court today framed charges against nine persons including BNP chief Khaleda Zia and her son Tarique Rahman in two corruption cases.

While six including Khaleda and Tarique, also the senior vice chairman of the party, were indicted on graft charge relating to Zia Orphanage Trust, four including Khaleda were indicted for corruption in Zia Charitable Trust.

The trial will begin on April 21 with the recording of statement of the complainants.

The court, which is dealing with the cases, turned down two appeals from the defence lawyers for adjourning the charge framing hearing today, our court correspondent reported.

The indictment came after an eventful day at Special Judges Court-3 marked by the Judge Bashudev Roy's leaving the courtroom twice following the defence lawyers' derogatory remarks and expression of no-confidence in him.

With hearing on charge framing into the two cases scheduled for today, Khaleda reached the court premises in Kotwali area of the capital at 1:05pm.

She submitted two adjournment petitions before the judge through her counsels.

After hearing from both the defence and prosecution for 25 minutes, the judge rejected the appeals.

The defence counsels then started making derogatory comments about the court, prompting the judge to leave the courtroom around 1:40pm.

The court plunged into a pandemonium as lawyers from both the defence and the prosecution started shouting at each other and chanting slogans over the comments.

Around 2:00pm, the defence counsels went the chamber of Judge Roy and submitted four separation petitions -- two for each of the cases -- seeking permission for going to the higher court for reviewing the rejection orders.

The judge went to the courtroom again at 3:15pm to hear the appeals but he left the room for the second time when the defence said it does not have confidence in him. 

In his chamber, the judge later indicted the nine in the two graft cases while Khaleda was sitting in the courtroom.

On February 16, Judge (in-charge) Md Rezaul Islam of the court asked Khaleda to appear before the court today (March 19) after fixing the date for the charge framing hearing in the cases against the BNP chief and eight others.

So far, hearing of the two cases has been deferred 19 and 10 times respectively.

Khaleda was absent from the court on several dates showing different reasons related to security, illness and the parliament being in session.

ZIA ORPHANAGE GRAFT CASE

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in July 2009 filed the Zia Orphanage graft case against Khaleda, her elder son and BNP Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman and four others for embezzling over Tk 2.1 crore by forming the “fake” trust.

The four other accused are former BNP lawmaker Kazi Salimul Haque, businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed, former principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui and Momenur Rahman, nephew of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman.

ZIA CHARITABLE TRUST GRAFT CASE

The ACC on August 8 in 2011 filed the Zia charitable graft case against Khaleda and three others for abusing power in setting up the charity.

The three other accused are Harris Chowdhury, Khaleda's former political secretary, Ziaul Islam Munna, assistant private secretary (APS) of Harris, and Monirul Islam Khan, APS of former Dhaka City Corporation mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka.

Harris is absconding while Monirul and Munna are on bail.