“The High Court withdrew a temporary ban on proceedings over the Niko case... they asked her to surrender before the (lower) trial court in two months,” an official of the Supreme Court’s registrar office said. The two-member bench comprising Justices Nuruzzaman and Zafar Ahmed rejected BNP chief Zia’s petition seeking to scrap the case and asked the concerned court to consider her bail prayer “unless she misuses the privilege”, he said. The HC in 2008 had suspended the proceedings of the case which it lifted on Thursday.
The Niko case was launched during the past <g data-gr-id="28">military backed</g> interim government in 2007 after the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) accused Zia, 69, and 10 others of causing a loss of nearly 13,777 crore Taka by reaching a non-transparent deal with the Canadian company. The orders came hours after a lower court deferred the hearing in two alleged graft cases against Zia in which she could be jailed for life if found guilty.
Earlier on Thursday, Zia appeared before a makeshift court at Bakshibazar amid heavy security. This was her third appearance in the court in 10 weeks as she is being tried on two graft charges in which she is accused of misappropriating an amount of 52.5 million Taka involving Zia Orphanage Trust graft and Charitable Trust. Zia’s counsels had submitted two petitions seeking adjournment of today’s hearing in the two cases as they had earlier placed a writ petition with the High Court for expunging the recording statement of the complainant in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case which is now pending. They will submit <g data-gr-id="35">same</g> petition in connection with Zia Charitable Trust corruption, the lawyers said.
As Thursday’s court proceedings began, Zia’s counsels cross-examined Harun-ur-Rashid in Zia Charitable Trust graft case. His recording statement was completed by the court. Harun, <g data-gr-id="26">plaintiff</g> of both the cases, is a deputy director of the <g data-gr-id="25">Anti Corruption</g> Commission. The court completed recording statement of Harun.