SC extends stay on Khaleda bail

The Supreme Court on Thursday extended till 24 June its previous order that stayed the High Court order granting bail to BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia in two cases filed in Cumilla.

A three-member bench of the Appellate Division led by chief justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order and asked the state counsel to file regular leave-to-appeal-petition against the HC order within this period, reports UNB.

Attorney general Mahbubey Alam stood for the state while advocate Zainul Abedin, AJ Mohammad Ali and Khandaker Mahbub Hossain for Khaleda.

On 29 May, the chamber judge of the Appellate Division justice Hasan Foez Siddique stayed until 31 May the HC order that had granted bail to Khaleda Zia after hearing a petition filed by the state challenging the order.

On 28 May, the HC granted interim bail to country’s principal opposition the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s chairperson in the two Cumilla cases and rejected bail petition in a defamation case filed in Narail.

Soon after the HC order, the government filed a petition with the Appellate Division challenging it.

Of the cases, two were filed in Cumilla on charge of plotting to carry out subversive acts and another in Narail on defamation charges.

On 19 May, the HC granted permission to ruling Bangladesh Awami League president Sheikh Hasina’s arch enemy Khaleda Zia for filing the bail petitions after her lawyers appealed for permission.

The Appellate Division on 18 May upheld the HC order that had granted bail to convicted Khaleda Zia in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

However, the BNP chief was not freed from jail as she was shown arrested in the cases filed with different police stations in Cumilla, Dhaka, Narail and Panchagarh.

The BNP chairperson is now facing a total of 36 cases.

Eight people were killed and at least 20 others injured when miscreants hurled a petrol bomb at a bus in Jogmohanpur in Chauddagram of Cumilla district during the BNP-led alliance’s movement on 3 February 2015.

A covered van was vandalised and torched in Chauddagram on Dhaka-Chattogram Highway on 28 January in 2015.

Two cases were filed against Khaleda in this connection.

On 21 December 2015, Khaleda Zia at a discussion at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh raised questions about the actual number of Liberation War martyrs saying, “There’re controversies over how many people were martyred in the Liberation War.”

Reacting to Khaleda’s remark, a defamation case was filed against her with a Narail court on 24 December.