SC cancels govt plea against Khaleda acquittal

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The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday refused the government’s leave to appeal against the High Court (HC) judgment quashing two graft cases against former premier Khaleda Zia as the government failed to clearly explain years of delay in seeking the permission.

The full bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Mohammad Ruhul Amin gave the decision.

The graft cases were filed during the 1996-2001 rule of Awami League government. Following applications filed by Khaleda the HC quashed the cases during the rule of BNP-led four-party alliance government.

On December 21, 1996, now defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption (Bac) filed a graft case with Ramna Police Station against Khaleda holding her responsible for the illegal appointments of 746 sub-inspectors of police.

The Bac filed the other case on January 28, 1997 with the Cantonment Police Station, accusing Khaleda of misappropriating Tk 64 lakh for refurbishing her private residence at Dhaka Cantonment.

Following Khaleda’s appeal, the HC quashed the case relating to house decoration in October 2001, a few days after the Khaleda-led government assumed power that year. The HC quashed the other case in 2002.

The government had not since filed any leave to appeal against the HC orders.

After the present caretaker government assumed power, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed applications in December last year seeking permission to file appeal against the HC verdicts.

But the government failed to give any satisfactory explanation for the delay in filing the leave to appeal.

The additional attorney general argued in the court that it was not possible for any government official–ex-Bac official or government law officers–to file an appeal against the HC verdicts as Khaleda was the prime minister when the cases against her were quashed.

But the court did not consider the explanation to be clear enough.

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