Dhaka's
Third Metropolitan Special Judges Court, which is hearing the Zia Orphanage
Trust and Zia Charitable Trust graft cases, scrapped the bail for the former
prime minister as she failed to appear in a hearing on Wednesday.
The
others whose bails have been cancelled are former Magura MP Kazi Salimul Haque
Kamal and businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed.
The trials of the cases filed by
the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) are being held at the Special Judge’s Court
set up at Bakshibazar's Alia Madrasa ground in Dhaka.
During Wednesday’s
hearing, the court started recording testimonies of the plaintiff ACC official
Harun Or Rashid, said ACC’s counsel Mosharraf Hossain Kajal.
The court
had set Wednesday for the hearing of the case on Jan 29, when Khaleda pleaded
for more time, as she was mourning the death of her youngest son.
Her
counsels had then also told the court that she was being ‘prevented’ from
leaving her Gulshan office by police.
The court had exempted the BNP
chief from attending the hearing and ordered the recording of plaintiff
testimonies in her absence.
Khaleda’s lawyers expressed lack of
confidence in the judge after he continued with the witness
deposition.
Khaleda has been living at her Gulshan office since Jan 3
after police stopped her from leaving the premises.
On Jan 5, security
authorities posted outside the office locked the main gate from the outside,
when the BNP chief was scheduled to attend a party event in Dhaka.
She
announced an indefinite countrywide agitation and has been living there since
then despite the withdrawal of the heavy police deployment.
On Wednesday,
Khaleda petitioned the court for more time, citing a leave-to-appeal petition in
the High Court.
Court rejected Khaleda’s plea. Her bail was cancelled and
arrest warrants were issued as she did not appear in scheduled
hearings.
In 2008, ACC filed the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case against
six including Khaleda and her son Tarique Rahman.
It alleged that the
defendants misappropriated Tk 21 million from funds meant for the trust, which
reportedly came from a foreign bank.
In 2011, the anti-corruption
watchdog sued the BNP chief and three others for embezzlement of Tk 31.5 million
of the Zia Charity Trust.
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