Graft cases: Khaleda appears before court

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Sunday appeared before a make-shift court set up at Government Aliya Madrasa playground near Dhaka Central Jail in Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust corruption cases. The cases over the embezzlement of Tk 50 million were being heard at Dhaka’s Third Metropolitan Special Judge’s Court, temporarily set up on the field at the Bakshibazar’s Aliya Madrasa. The court fixed October 26, 2014, for recording deposition of the cases but Khaleda Zia did not turn up citing security reason. Later, the court asked her to appear on November 9. Khaleda Zia, also a former prime minister and the widow of Late President Ziaur Rahman, the founder of the BNP, left her Gulshan residence for Bakshibazar in Old Dhaka around 10:00am. Anti-Corruption Commission’s Deputy Director Harun-ur-Rashid, plaintiff in the cases – ‘Zia Orphanage Trust’ and ‘Zia Charitable Trust’ – is scheduled to testify before Judge Basudev Roy later today, according to private TV channels.