SC stays Khaleda’s bail in 2 Cumilla cases

Staff Correspondent: The chamber court has stayed a High Court (HC) order that had granted bail to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in two cases filed in Cumilla.

The chamber judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order after hearing a petition filed by the state challenging the HC order, and sent the appeal to the regular Appellate Division bench fixing Thursday (May 31) for the next hearing.

Now, the Appellate Division full bench, led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, will hear the state appeal against the bail on the day.

Earlier, on Monday, the High Court granted six-month interim bail to the BNP Chairperson in the two cases and rejected the bail petition in a defamation case filed in Narail.

Soon after the HC order, the government filed a petition with the Appellate Division challenging it.

Of the cases, two were filed in Cumilla on charge of plotting to carry out subversive acts and another in Narail on defamation charges.

On May 19, the HC granted permission to Khaleda for filing the bail petitions after her lawyers appealed for permission.

The Appellate Division earlier on May 18 upheld the High Court order that had granted bail to convicted BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

However, the BNP chief was not freed from jail as she was shown arrested in the cases filed with different police stations in Cumilla, Dhaka, Narail and Panchagarh.

The BNP chairperson is now facing a total of 36 cases.
 

risingbd/Dhaka/May 29, 2018/Mahidi/A K Azad