SC rejects Khaleda's pleas on the legality of judge's appointment

The Appellate Division has quashed two petitions by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia challenging the legality of the appointment of a judge, who indicted her in two graft cases.

A five-member bench led by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain decided the issue on Sunday.

The matter had been “dismissed”, the chief justice said.

Hearings on the petitions concluded on Thursday, when the court had set Sunday as the day for the verdict.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the state, while AJ Mohammad Ali and Joynal Abedin stood for the BNP chairperson.

On Mar 19, the court of Dhaka's Third Metropolitan Sessions Judge Basudeb Roy framed charges against eight including Khaleda and her elder son Tarique Rahman in the two cases accusing them of embezzling Tk 50 million.

Khaleda, on May 12, challenged the legality of the appointment of Judge Roy.

She also sought a stay on the case proceedings.

On May 25, the High Court bench of Justices Farah Mahbub and Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo delivered a split verdict on the plea over the legality of the judge’s appointment.

Earlier the former prime minister had moved High Court challenging the indictment but it dismissed her plea.

Justice Farah Mahbub issued a ruling and ordered a freeze on the proceedings in the cases, while Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo wanted to scrap the petitions.

As per rule, the matter was forwarded to the chief justice who assigned Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque’s bench to hear the petitions.

The bench also dismissed the petitions on June 19.

Khaleda then filed two petitions before the Appellate Division against the dismissal.

The Anti-Corruption Commission in 2008 filed a case against six, including Khaleda and her son Tarique Rahman, for allegedly siphoning off Tk 21 million from the ‘Zia Orphanage Trust’ funds, which reportedly came from a foreign bank.

Charges were pressed against them two years later.

In 2011, the ACC accused the BNP chief and three others of misappropriating Tk 31.5 million from the ‘Zia Charitable Trust’.

The national anti-graft agency started prosecution against the four by submitting a charge-sheet against them in 2012.

Proceedings in the cases were conducted in a special court on Alia Madrasa ground in Dhaka.

The other four accused in the Zia Orphanage Trust case are former BNP MP Salimul Haq Kamal, businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed, former secretary at PMO Kamal Uddin Siddique and Ziaur Rahman’s nephew Mominur Rahman.

In Zia Charitable Trust case the accused are Khaleda’s former political secretary Harris Chowdhury, his assistant personal secretary Ziaul Islam Munna and ex-Dhaka City Corporation mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka’s personal secretary Monirul Islam Khan.