HC to decide about court in mid-June
The High Court will deliver its decision in mid of June on whether the trial proceedings of Niko corruption case against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will run at the lower court.
The HC yesterday concluded hearing on a seven-year-old writ petition filed by Khaleda challenging the legality of filing of the case.
Both Appellate and High Court Divisions of the Supreme Court will go into an annual vacation between June 1 and 14.
The HC did not specifically say whether it will give verdict on Khaleda's petitions on June 14, her lawyer Raghib Rauf Chowdhury told The Daily Star.
The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the graft case with Tejgaon Police Station on December 9, 2007, accusing Khaleda and several others of abusing power while she was the prime minister to award a gas exploration and extraction deal to the Canadian company, Niko.
Our court correspondent adds, a Dhaka court yesterday set June 28 to decide whether the charges brought against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and 37 others in two cases filed over Jatrabari arson will be accepted.
The court will also pass an order on the same date whether arrest warrants against Khaleda and 30 others will be issued.
Charges have already been pressed against the accused for burning alive a person and injuring 30 others for firebombing a bus in Jatrabari on January 23.
The charge sheets said Khaleda masterminded the arson and showed her along with 30 other fugitives because they had not secured bail in these two cases. Others are already in jail.
A day after the January 23 arson, Jatrabari police filed two cases against 68 BNP and Jamaat leaders.
On May 6, Basir Ahmed, a DB sub-inspector submitted two charge sheets to the CMM court of Dhaka in one case. One charge sheet involves killing and causing injuries and the other blasting firebombs.
On May 20, another DB official Zahidul Islam pressed charges against Khaleda and 37 others for creating subversive activities by throwing petrol bombs on a passenger bus.
The investigation officers appealed to the court to drop charges against 31 people named in the FIR, including BNP leaders Rafiqul Islam Mia and Selima Rahman, as their involvement was not proved.
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