ACC pleads for fixing verdict date in graft case against Khaleda

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Wednesday pleaded for fixing the date of verdict in Zia Charitable Trust graft case implicating BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia as the prime accused.

The anti-graft body made the plea as the counsels of the BNP chief continued to boycott the arguments like past few days.

Judge Md Akhteruzzaman of the Special Judge Court-5 set September 30 to pass order on the plea, extending Khaleda’s bail till the date.

The court is also scheduled to pass order on that day on a plea of two other accused Ziaul Islam Munna and Monirul Islam Khan, expressing no-confidence on the judge, reports BSS.

“As the defence is not willing to take part in the hearing anymore, we have pleaded to set date of verdict in the case. The court has set September 30 to pass order on our plea,” ACC counsel Mosharraf Hossain Kajal told BSS.

Earlier on September 20, the court had ordered that the hearing of the case will go on in the absence of Khaleda Zia, who refused to appear before the court on numerous times on health ground.

The ACC filed the case with capital’s Tejgaon Police Station on August 8, 2010, for embezzling Taka 3.15 crore. Police on January 16, 2012, filed charge sheet against four including the BNP chief.

The four accused in the case are- BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, her former political secretary Haris Chowdhury, Haris’s former personal secretary Ziaul Islam Munna and Monirul Islam Khan, former personal secretary of former Dhaka city mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka.

Court framed charges against Khaleda and others in the case on March 19, 2014.