The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for the continuation of the trial proceedings of a corruption case filed against Dr Zubaida Rahman, wife of BNP's acting chairman Tarique Rahman.
The apex court upheld a High Court verdict that rejected a petition filed by Zubaida seeking to drop the charges of concealing asset information against her.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order, dismissing an appeal filed by Zubaida Rahman challenging the HC verdict.
Lawyer AJ Mohammad Ali appeared in the hearing for Zubaida Rahman, while Attorney General AM Amin Uddin represented the state and lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan argued for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Khurshid Alam Khan said now there is no legal bar for the lower court concerned to resume the trial proceedings of the corruption case against Zubaida.
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 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 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 Wednesday dismissed it.
The trial court had stopped proceedings of the case after Zubaida Rahman filed the leave to appeal petition with the Appellate Division, Khurshid Alam Khan said.