Khaleda Zias release unlikely before Eid
SC extends stay on BNP chiefs bail in 2 cases
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday (Thursday) extended the stay against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zias bail till June 24 in two cases of murder and vandalism in Comilla. The apex court also asked the government to file two separate leave to appeal petitions before it against the High Court (HC) bail order by June 24.
After hearing two separate petitions moved by the government, a three-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, fixed June 24 for hearing on the leave to appeal petitions.
Later, Advocate Zainul Abedin, one of the counsel for the BNP chief, told reporters that the government wanted to keep Khaleda in jail for a long time.
There is no previous instance of the Appellate Division interfering with the HCs bail order. But the apex court stayed the HC order, though bail was granted to the BNP chief on valid legal grounds... We want to get the BNP chief released through legal battle. But the government is trying to keep her in jail with an ill motive to fulfill its political plans, he said.
On May 29, the chamber court of the Appellate Division stayed the HC order that granted six months bail to Khaleda Zia in two Comilla arson cases and sent the matter to the full bench of the apex court for hearing.
On May 28, the HC bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice JBM Hassan granted
Khaleda Zia six months bail in the cases filed over vandalism in Chouddagram, Comilla, on January 2015, and the killing of eight and injuring of 2526 others by setting a passenger bus ablaze in Chouddagram on February 2, 2015.
The two cases were filed in Comilla on charges of vandalising vehicles in 2015. Eight people were killed and 25-26 injured when assailants hurled a petrol bomb at a bus, in the Jagmohanpur area of Chouddagram in Comilla district, during the BNP-led alliances protests on February 3, 2015. Two cases one under the Explosive Substances Act and another for murder were filed against Khaleda in connection with the incident.
Another bench of the HC, comprising Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Sahidul Karim, yesterday denied bail to Khaleda Zia in two other cases filed on charge of observing fake birthday and demeaning the national flag.
However, the HC bench ordered the metropolitan magistrates Court in Dhaka to dispose of the bail petition filed by Khaleda in the cases as early as possible.
Ir came up with the order after hearing on two bail petitions filed by Khaleda seeking bail in the two cases filed in Dhaka in 2016.
Among the two cases, one was a defamation suit filed
by the Bangladesh Jananetri Parishad president, AB
Siddik, on November 3, 2016, against Khaleda for distorting the history of the Liberation War and demeaning the
national flag and map. An arrest warrant was issued on November 12, 2017.
The other case was filed by Gazi Jahirul Islam on August 30, 2016, accusing Khaleda of observing her birthday on August 15 on the basis of false information.
On November 17, 2016, an arrest warrant was issued against her in this respect.
On May 16, the Appellate Division of the SC upheld the HC order that had granted bail to Khaleda in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.
However, the BNP chief was not freed from jail, as she was shown arrested in some other cases filed with different police stations in Comilla, Dhaka, Narail and Panchagarh, including the three in which she has already sought bail.
The BNP chairperson is currently facing a total of 36 cases.
