In the full text of a verdict, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has described Zubaida Rahman, wife of BNP's acting chairman Tarique Rahman, as a fugitive.
The apex court also observed that the High Court division has committed an error in admitting a petition filed on behalf of Zubaida Rahman.
On last April 13, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique delivered a short verdict on a petition filed by Zubaida Rahman challenging a High Court order. The full text of that verdict was released on Wednesday.
The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case on September 26, 2007, with Kafrul Police Station against Tarique Rahman, who is now in London, his wife Zubaida, and her mother Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu for amassing assets through illegal means and concealing information in their wealth statement.
Tarique faces charges of earning around Tk 48.15 million from undisclosed sources and concealing information on the assets. His wife and mother-in-law were sued for assisting him and concealing information. According to the case detail, Zubaida received two fixed deposit receipts (FDR) worth Tk 3.5 million from Tarique.
The investigation officer of the case pressed charges against the three at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, Dhaka, on March 31, 2008.
Following the petition filed by Zubaida, the HC on April 8, 2008, stayed the proceedings of the case against her and issued a rule asking the ACC to explain 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 on the trial proceedings 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 apex court challenging the HC verdict. After the final hearing on the leave to appeal petition, the apex court on April 13 this year dismissed it.
The trial court had stopped proceedings of the case after Zubaida Rahman filed the leave to appeal petition with the Appellate Division, lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan who appeared in the case on behalf of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said.
However, now there is no legal bar to proceed with the case, said the lawyer.
Citing the verdict, Khurshid Alam Khan said, “Zubaida Rahman was absconding when the High Court admitted her petition in the corruption case filed for amassing assets through illegal means and concealing information in their wealth statement. The High Court didn’t do the right job admitting a petition filed by a fugitive.”
“The Appellate Division has also observed in the verdict that all citizens are equal before the law according to Article 27 of the Constitution. But in this case, Zubaida Rahman got a special privilege which was contrary to the Constitution,” also said the lawyer citing the verdict.
Meanwhile, Barrister Kayser Kamal, a counsel for Zubaida Rahman, didn't make any comment on the issue as they have yet to receive a copy of the verdict.
