Trial in Tarique, his wife’s graft case begins

Trial in a graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2007 against BNP acting Chairman Tarique Rahman and his wife Zubaida Rahman has begun as a Dhaka court has framed charges against them in absentia.

Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Md Asaduzzaman passed the order on Thursday.

Tarique and his wife’s lawyers sought permission to defend them in their absence but the court denied it.

On September 26, 2007, the anti-graft body filed the case with Kafrul Police Station against Tarique, his wife and her mother Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu for amassing assets worth Tk 4.82 crore through illegal means and concealing the information of Tk 2.16 crore in their wealth statements.

The investigation officer of the case pressed charges against the three with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court, Dhaka, on March 31, 2009.