Khaleda now shown arrested in Comilla arson case

Hours after the High Court granted BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia interim bail on Monday, a Comilla court shown her arrested in an arson attack case asking police to produce her before it on 28 March. 

The court passed the order following a petition filed by officer-in-charge of Gulshan police station Abu Bakr Siddique, UNB news agency quoted Comilla court police inspector Subrata Banarjee to have said.

The arson attack on a bus in Comilla’s Chouddagram upazila on 3 February 2005 during a sturdy street anti-government campaign by opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) killed eight people.

Two cases -- one under the Explosive Substances Act and another for murder -- were filed over the arson incident.

Earlier on 25 February last, a Comilla court had ordered police to execute the warrant for the arrest of the BNP chief and former prime minister and 48 other BNP leaders and activists by 24 April in the case.

As the warrant for the arrest of Khaleda was sent to Gulshan police station in the capital, its OC filed a petition with the court seeking its order to show her arrested in the case.

Accepting the charge-sheet against Khaleda and 68 BNP activists, additional chief judicial magistrate Joynab Begum on 2 January last issued the arrest warrant for the BNP chief and others as they did not appear before it on the day.

Sub-inspector Nururzzaman filed the murder case against 77 people, including Khaleda.

A Comilla court on 9 October 2017, ordered the arrest of BNP chairperson Khaleda and 45 other leaders and activists of her party in the case filed under the Explosive Substances Act over the arson attack.

Earlier in the day, a HC bench of justice M Enayetur Rahim and justice Shahidul Karim granted Khaleda four-month interim bail, more than a month after she had been sentenced to five years' imprisonment in a graft case.

The High Court (HC) issued the bail after it received the documents of the lower court verdict in the Zia Orphanage Trust case.

Source: prothomalo