The High court on Sunday ordered the judicial court to dispose of as soon as possible the case against Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting chairman Tarique Rahman and his wife Zubaida Rahman in a graft case filed by anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), reports news agency UNB.
The HC bench of justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo also rejected the couple's writ petitions challenging the corruption case against them for acquiring wealth beyond their known sources of income and concealing wealth in their affidavits.
Khurshid Alam Khan, ACC lawyer, said Tarique Rahman is a fugitive convict. So no lawyers can fight on behalf of him.
The Appellate Division recently declared Zubaida Rahman as a fugitive.
As both of them remained fugitive, the court rejected the writ petitions of the two saying these are not acceptable, he said.
The court also withdrew the stay order on the trial proceedings of the case filed against them.
It also asked to send the documents of the case to the judicial court within 10 days and dispose of it soon.
Earlier, on 19 June, the High Court fixed 26 June for hearing the three writ petitions.
Advocate AJ Mohammad Ali stood for the petitioners while advocate Khurshid Alam and deputy attorney general AKM Amin Uddin Manik represented the ACC and state respectively.
On 26 September, 2007, the ACC lodged a complaint with Kafrul police station against Tarique Rahman, Zubaida Rahman and her mother Iqbal Mand Banu for amassing illegal wealth of Tk 4.81 crore (48.1 million) and concealing the information.
In the same year, the High Court issued a rule suspending the trial proceedings in the case after hearing a petition filed by Zubaida.
On 12 April, 2017, the HC rejected the rule and asked her to surrender before the court within eight weeks.