High Court
The Appellate Division on Tuesday stayed until May 31 bails granted to former prime minister and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia by the High Court Division in two separate cases.
In one case she was the accused of abetting the killing of eight passengers by torching a bus at Chouddagram, Comilla during the nationwide blockade of roads and highways in 2015.
In the other case also she was accused of abetting of setting a covered van on fire also at Chouddagram, Comilla, during the nationwide blockade of roads and highways in 2015.
Appellate Division’s chamber judge, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique set May 31, the last working day before the 23-day summer vacation, for hearing by a regular bench a provisional petition the government filed on Monday seeking leave to appeal against bails granted to Khaleda Zia by the High Court Division on Monday.
On Monday, Khaleda Zia was granted ad-interim bails for six months in both the cases.
The HC ,however, rejected her application seeking bail in a defamation case filed by a ruling Awami League leader in the court of Narail’s chief judicial magistrate alleging that Khaleda Zia by expressing doubts about the number of people killed during the Liberation War had defamed the War of Independence.
Khaleda Zia’s lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain said that stay made it clear that Khaleda Zia would not be able to leave the jail on bail until and unless the government would permit it.
He said that the government wanted to reintroduce the one-party BAKSAL rule with Khaleda Zia inside the jail.
On Tuesday, an HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim set May 31 for giving its order on her bail applications in two other cases, one about showing disrespect to the national flag and the other in which it had been alleged that she had doctored her birthdate.
The bench set the schedule after Khaleda’s counsels submitted that two metropolitan magistrates courts shelved her bail petitions in files for the sake of record.
At a 30-minute hearing by the chamber judge, attorney general Mahbubey Alam prayed to stay Khaleda Zia’s bail on the plea that country-wide subversive activities would not occur during non-stop blockade of roads and highways in 2015 unless Khaleda Zia asked her party leaders to bring more people on the streets.
He submitted that she instigated party men to commit subversive activities and causing deaths to many people by torching buses in the capital and elsewhere in the country.
Khaleda’s lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain pleaded for upholding her bails granted by the High Court after the trial courts’ refusal to grant the bails in politically motivated cases against her.
He submitted that Khaleda was implicated in the cases later while the police submitted the charge sheets.
Source: New Age.
