Khaleda, Tarique asked to appear in court on Aug 30

Zia Orphanage Trust fund embezzlement
Khaleda, Tarique asked to appear in court on Aug 30
A Dhaka court on Wednesday asked the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s chairperson, Khaleda Zia, her eldest son Tarique Rahman and four others to appear before it on August 30 to face charges of embezzling Tk 2.1 crore from the Zia Orphanage Trust’s fund between June 1991 and February 2007.
The Dhaka metropolitan senior special judge, ANM Bashir Ullah, also deferred to August 30 the hearing on the acceptability of the charge-sheet of the case, as none of the six, against whom charges were pressed, appeared in the court on Wednesday.
Before starting the hearing, the court asked the defence counsels why the accused persons were not present.
Khaleda’s counsel Sanaullah Miah replied that she was on bail granted by the High Court in the case till next January.
An accused, even if on bail, has to appear in the court during the hearing of a case, the court pointed out.
Sanaullah then told the court that Khaleda, also leader of the opposition in the parliament and former prime minister, could not appear in the court due to security concerns.
He also pleaded for issuance of an order asking the government to ensure adequate security for Khaleda.
‘If her security in ensured, she will definitely appear in the court,’ the counsel added.
The public prosecutor appointed by the Anti-Corruption Commission in the case, Mosharraf Hossain Kajal, told reporters that the court had fixed August 30 for hearing the acceptability of the charge-sheet in the presence of the accused persons.
The ACC’s assistant director, Harun ur Rashid, who is also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge-sheet to Dhaka’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on August 5.
Dhaka’s chief metropolitan magistrate, the next day, transferred the case to Dhaka’s Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court for trial.
This is the first case, after the assumption of office by the Awami League-led alliance on January 6, in which charges have been pressed against Khaleda Zia and against any other high-profile politician as well.
The charge-sheet has been submitted at a time when the government is withdrawing in bunches the cases filed against political leaders and activists in the past, apparently with the intent of political harassment.
The government has so far recommended withdrawal of 365 cases against politicians — all of whom belong to the Awami League.
No case against opposition political leaders and activists have, however, yet been recommended for withdrawal, although most of the opposition politicians have also appealed for withdrawal of cases against them.
Khaleda Zia and her two sons, Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman, filed applications on April 30 to seek withdrawal of all the 20 cases, including the Zia Orphanage Trust case, lodged against them during emergency rule.
Harun filed the case with the Ramna police on 3 July, 2008 during the regime of the military-controlled interim government, accusing Khaleda Zia, Tarique, Khaleda’s nephew Mominur Rahman, former BNP lawmaker Qazi Saleemul Huq and three of his associates — Syed Ahmed Sayeed, Giasuddin Ahmed and Sharfuddin Ahmed — of embezzling Tk 2.1 crore from the orphanage’s fund.
He filed the charge-sheet without including the names of Syed Ahmed and Gias Uddin Ahmed, and indicting the former prime minister’s principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui.
He also pressed charges against Mominur Rahman, Qazi Saleemul Huq and his associate Sharfuddin Ahmed.
In the charge-sheet the investigation officer said that Khaleda, during her tenure as prime minister (1991-1996), opened an account in the name of the Prime Minister’s Orphan Fund with the Ramna branch of Sonali Bank. In the account she received $12,55,000, amounting to Tk 4.44 crore, on 9 June, 1991, as donation through demand draft of the United Saudi Commercial Bank.
More than two years later, on 5 September, 1993 to be precise, Khaleda formed the Zia Orphanage Trust, named after her late husband, along with Tarique, Arafat and Mominur, son of Ziaur Rahman’s sister. Tarique was appointed the author of the trust or the settler, said the charge-sheet.
On 13 November, 1993, Khaleda gave a cheque for Tk 2.33 crore of the bank account of the Prime Minister’s Orphan Fund to the Trust for the establishment of an orphanage in Bogra.
The cheque was deposited in the bank account of the Trust at the Sonali Bank branch in the Gulshan new north circle on 15 November, 1993, according to the charge-sheet.
On 4 December, 1993, Tk 4 lakh was withdrawn from the Trust account. Of the amount, Tk 2.77 lakh was spent for buying 2.79 acres of land at Gabtali in Bogra for the orphanage.
The rest of the fund remained idle with the bank and the amount increased to Tk 3.37 crore due to interest till 12 April, 2006. But neither was any orphanage established nor was any audit done, said the charge-sheet.
It said that Tk 3.3 crore was withdrawn from the account through six cheques in 2006 to open fixed deposit receipts with the Gulshan branch of the Prime Bank, and the accused, with the connivance of each other, misappropriated Tk 2.1 crore by opening FDRs in their names between June 1991 and February 2007.
The case was filed under Section 409 of the Penal Code for criminal breach of trust by a public servant, Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947 for abuse of power, and Section 109 of the Penal Code for abetment of offences.

Courtesy of NewAgebd