The High Court on Monday (Mar 12) granted 4-month bail for Bangladesh Nationalist Party Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, who was serving jail in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case since early February, local media reports said.
The High Court (HC) finally granted a four-month bail to BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim passed the order after a hearing on a bail petition in the case. On Sunday, the High Court deferred until today (Monday) the passing of its order on Khaleda’s bail petition in the case in which she was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
The HC was scheduled to pass an order on her petition on Sunday but deferred it as the documents relating to the lower court verdict in the graft case did not reach the department concerned of the HC in time. However, the documents later reached the department concerned of the High Court on Sunday.
On Feb 22, Khaleda filed the petition with the High Court seeking bail in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. Barrister Nowshad Jamir and Barrister Kaiser Kamal, on behalf of the BNP chief, submitted the 880-page bail petition showing 31 grounds for granting her bail.
On Feb 25, Khaleda Zia failed to secure bail in the case as the High Court says it will pass an order on her bail petition upon receiving all the documents relating to the judgment from the lower court.
Earlier, the HC asked the lower court to submit all the relevant documents within 15 days.
On Feb 8, the Dhaka Special Court-5 convicted the former Prime Minister and BNP chairperson and sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. She was then sent to old central jail at Nazimuddin Road in the city.
The court read out a 632-page summarised version of the verdict on that day and it released the full 1174-page copy of the verdict on Feb 19.
The court also jailed her elder son Tarique Rahman, now the acting chairman of BNP, and four others for 10 years and fined them Tk 2.1 crore, saying all the six convicts would have to pay the fine in equal amounts.
The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case with Ramna police in July 2008, accusing the six of misappropriating over Tk 2.1 crore that came from a foreign bank as grants for orphans.
