Tarique Rahman’s wife loses appeal, graft case to continue
BI Report || BusinessInsider
Dr Zubaida Rahman. Photo: Collected
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal filed by Dr Zubaida Rahman, wife of BNP’s Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, and upheld the High Court verdict paving the way for the lower court to resume trial proceedings of a corruption case against her.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique dismissed the appeal filed by Zubaida Rahman.
The grounds on which the apex court delivered the order could not be known immediately as the full test of its order is yet to be released.
After the apex court order, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan said the Appellate Division dismissed a leave to appeal filed by Zubaida Rahman challenging the HC verdict.
“Now, there is no legal bar for the lower court to resume the trial proceedings of the graft case following the apex court order. Zubaida Rahman has to appear before the lower court concerned by eight weeks in line with the High Court order,” he added.
On September 26, 2008, the ACC filed the case with Kafrul Police Station against Tarique Rahman, who is now in London, his wife Zubaida, and her mother Iqbal Mand Banu for amassing wealth through illegal means and concealing information in their wealth statement.
The investigation officer of the case pressed charges against the three at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court, Dhaka, on March 31, 2009.
Following the petition filed by Zubaida, the HC on April 8, 2009, stayed the proceedings of the case against her and issued a rule asking the ACC to explain as to why the proceedings against her should not be scrapped.
After holding a hearing on the rule, the HC on April 12, 2017 rejected the petition, lifted the stay order and asked Zubaida Rahman to surrender before a lower court concerned in eight weeks in the corruption case.
Without surrendering to the trial court, Zubaida Rahman filed a leave to appeal petition with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court challenging the HC verdict. After hearing on the petition, the apex court on Wednesday came up with the dismissal order.
Senior counsel AJ Mohammad Ali appeared for Zubaida Rahman while Attorney General AM Amin Uddin represented the state lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan argued for the ACC.
