Denouncing shifting of trial venue of Khaleda Zia's graft cases to Alia Madrasah makeshift court, BNP alleged Thursday that the government had taken the move in a bid to harass Khaleda and keep her away from politics, reports UNB.
"The Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) has filed graft cases against our leader Khaleda Zia on false, baseless and fabricated charges only to undermine her. The trial of the graft cases being held at the District and Sessions Judge's court have been shifted to a makeshift court on Dhaka Alia Madrasah premises breaking the rules for speedy trial," BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said this while speaking at a press conference at the party's Nayapaltan central office in the city Thursday.
He further said: "We think it has been done with an ill-motive as per the government's pre-conceived plan to harass Khaleda Zia and keep her away from politics."
Earlier on Wednesday, a Law Ministry release said the trial of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia in the Zia Charitable and Orphanage Trust and graft cases pending with the Special Judge Court-3 has been shifted to makeshift court on the premises of Bakshibazar Alia Madrasha from Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judges court building.
The government has taken the decision in exercise of its power under section 9 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code, considering the huge backlog of cases and security risk over crowd during court hours, the release said.
Meanwhile, Claiming that State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal had his indirect hands in the Narayanganj seven murders, BNP vice chairman Sadeque Hossain Khoka demanded Thursday that Kamal's name be put in the murder case.
Khoka, also the Dhaka city unit BNP convener, was addressing the same press conference.
"A few days before his abduction, the slain Narayanganj panel mayor had informed the state minister that his life was in danger. Instead of taking any measurer, the state minister neglected the matter and asked him to go to the local MP. For this, the junior minister should be made an accused of indirectly abetting the killings," he said.
