ACC’s plea seeks date for verdict in Zia Charitable graft against Khaleda

Anti-Corruption Commission today submitted a petition seeking closing argument in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and a date for the delivery of its judgment in the case against.

ACC Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol submitted the plea before the Special Judge Court-5 of Dhaka.

Meantime, Judge Md Akhtaruzzaman of the special court extended the bail of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia till September 30 in the case.

The court passed the order after Khaleda’s lawyer Masud Ahmed Talukder submitted a petition seeking extension of her bail in the case. The lawyer also submitted another petition seeking adjournment of the argument hearing.

After hearing both the sides, the judge fixed the same for passing order on the petitions.

The ACC had filed the Zia Charitable Trust graft case against Khaleda and three others with Tejgaon Police Station in August, 2011. According to the case statement, the former prime minister and three others abused their power and raised funds for the trust from unknown sources.

The three others are Harris Chowdhury, political secretary to the then prime minister Khaleda, Ziaul Islam Munna, assistant private secretary (APS) to Harris, and Monirul Islam Khan, the thnn APS to former Dhaka City Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka.

On February 8, the same special court awarded Khaleda five years' rigorous imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case and sentenced her elder son Tarique Rahman, now acting BNP chairman, and four others to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment each.

The court also fined them a total of Tk 2.10 crore, saying all the six convicts have to pay the fine in equal amounts.