A Dhaka court on Monday rejected a petition that sought bail for detained former premier Khaleda Zia in the latest case against her filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission on July 3, accusing her of embezzling Tk 2.1 crore from the Zia Orphanage Trust’s fund.
The Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge, M Azizul Haque, passed the order after hearing the petition filed by Khaleda, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s chairperson.
‘We will soon move to the higher court to appeal against the rejection of the prayer for bail,’ one of her counsels, Sanaullah Miah, told New Age.
On July 23, Khaleda and Tarique were shown arrested in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case filed by the ACC’s assistant director, Harun ur Rashid, with the Ramna thana. Khaleda was arrested on September 3, 2007 and Tarique on March 8.
The other accused in the case are Khaleda’s nephew Mominur Rahman, former BNP lawmaker Qazi Saleemul Huq and three of his associates, Syed Ahmed Sayeed, Giasuddin Ahmed and Sharfuddin Ahmed, for embezzling Tk 2.1 crore from the orphanage’s fund.
Khaleda, according to the First Information Report, during her tenure as former prime minister (1991–1996) opened an account in the name of the Prime Minister’s Orphan Fund with the Ramna branch of Sonali Bank. In the account she received $12,55,000, equivalent to Tk 4.44 crore, on June 9, 1991 as donation through demand draft of the United Saudi Commercial Bank.
Moving the bail petition for Khaleda, her counsels argued that the government had lodged the case to harass her politically as no member of the trust had filed the case. ‘If she could misappropriate the orphanage’s money, the case should have been lodged by the deprived people,’ argued Sanaullah Mia.
The metropolitan public prosecutor, Ahsanul Haque Shomoji, opposed the bail prayer, saying that the lower courts have no jurisdiction to entertain the petition, especially when it is for bail.
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