Trial adjourned till today

A special court yesterday adjourned the trial proceeding in the Tk 21 crore bribery case against detained BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Tarique Rahman, former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and six others till today.
Judge Shahed Noor Uddin of the Special Court-3 fixed the date following an adjournment prayer from the defence. Yesterday was fixed for taking deposition of the witness.
Defence counsel Zakir Hossain Bhuiyan appealed for the adjournment, saying that the appellate division of the Supreme Court was due to hear a writ petition seeking quashment of the case yesterday.
Of the accused, Babar and Abu Sufian, director of a Bashundhara Group concern, were in the dock yesterday. Tarique was not produced before the court yesterday since he has been exempted from appearing in person during the trial proceedings. The rest are on the run.
The plaintiff, Abul Kashem, deputy assistant director of ACC, was also present.
On July 14, the court framed charges against Tarique, Babar and the others.
The ACC filed the case on October 4 last year, accusing six people of bribery to cover up the murder of Bashundhara Group executive Humayun Kabir Sabbir whose body was found outside a building in Bashundhara residential area on July 5, 2006.
The six are Babar, Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan alias Shah Alam, his two sons Shafiat Sobhan Sanvir and Sadaat Sobhan, Abu Sufian and Mia Nur Uddin Apu.
The names of Tarique and former BNP lawmaker Qazi Saleemul Huq Kamal were included in the charge sheet after an investigation found their involvement in the bribery.