Khaleda gets bail in 5 cases
Five separate courts of Dhaka yesterday (Tuesday) granted bail to BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia in connection with five cases, including one on sedition. The cases are the Jatrabari arson attack on a bus causing a death in 2015, Gatco graft case, sedition case for questioning the number of Liberation War martyrs and two other cases of violence, including a bomb attack on a procession led by shipping minister Shajahan Khan. The courts granted her bail when the former Prime Minister surrendered before the courts seeking bail in the cases. The courts also exempted her from personal appearance in connection with the cases. The Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judges Court judge Kamrul Hossain Mollah granted her bail in the arson case, while Judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar of the Special Judges Court-3 granted bail in the Gatco graft case. After this, Khaleda appeared before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrates Court in connection with the cases of sedition and violence filed against her with Jatrabari and Gulshan police stations. Judge Md Jakir Hossain Tipu of the Metropolitan Magistrates Court granted bail to Khaleda in the sedition case filed by a Supreme Court lawyer for her derogatory remarks on the number of Liberation War martyrs. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaysarul Alam granted her bail in the case filed over the bomb attack on Shajahan Khans procession, while Metropolitan Magistrate Maruf Hossain granted her bail in the other violence case. Khaleda reached the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judges Court at about 10:45am and filed separate bail petitions before the trial courts seeking bail in the cases after surrendering. When the car carrying her entered the court premises around 10:30am, hundreds of leaders and activists of the BNP and its associate bodies shouted slogans in favour of the former Prime Minister and the BNP. She was accompanied by Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas, Khaledas personal assistant, and several women leaders. Around 9:20am, Khaleda left her Gulshan residence to appear before the court. When she reached the court premises, Barrister Jamir Uddin Sircar, Barrister M Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Advocate Sanaullah Miah and other lawyers entered the court along with the BNP chief. Additional security forces were deployed around the court premises since the morning.
On January 25, SC lawyer Momtaz Uddin Ahmad Mehedi filed the sedition case with approval from the home ministry. In the case statement, he alleged that Khaleda, at a programme on December 21 last year, said: There are controversies over exactly how many were martyred in the Liberation War. There are also many books and documents on the controversies. Momtaz appealed to the court to issue an arrest warrant against the BNP chief.
On that day, Metropolitan Magistrate Rashed Talukder ordered Khaleda to appear before it after recording the statement of Momtaz, a former secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association. The magistrate also said that he had taken cognizance of the sedition charge. According to the case statement of the Jatrabari arson attack, one person was killed and 30 others were injured in the attack, one of the many bomb attacks that the country witnessed during the BNP-led 20-party alliances three- month blockade. On May 19 last year, detectives pressed charges against Khaleda and others, mostly her party men, for allegedly carrying out subversive activities through a petrol bomb attack on the passenger bus on the night of January 23 last year. On March 30, Judge Kamrul Hossain Mollah issued arrest warrants against Khaleda and 27 others in the arson attack case after accepting charges against 38 people. The order came after the investigation officer showed Khaleda and 27 others as fugitives and appealed to the court to issue arrest warrants against them. The court directed the officer-in-charge of Jatrabari police station to submit reports by April 27 on execution of arrest warrants.
