Graft case: Tarique, Zubaida face arrest warrants

A Dhaka court yesterday issued arrest warrants for BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman and his wife Zubaida Rahman in a graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

Judge Md Asaduzzaman of the Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court passed the order after accepting the charges brought against them in the case.

The judge also directed the officer-in-charge of Cantonment Police Station to submit a progress report on the execution of the arrest warrants by January 5.

On June 26 this year, the High Court declared Tarique and Zubaida as “fugitives” and rejected their writ petitions challenging the filing of the graft case.

The couple has been in London since 2008.

The HC also withdrew the stay order on the case filed during the caretaker government in 2007 and directed the lower court concerned to complete the trial proceedings as early as possible.

The chief metropolitan magistrate of Dhaka was asked to send the case record to the Dhaka Senior Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court within 10 days of receiving the order.

Trial proceedings against Tarique’s mother-in-law Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu were quashed.

On September 26, 2007, the anti-graft body filed the case with Kafrul Police Station against Tarique, his wife Zubaida and her mother Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu for amassing assets worth Tk 4.82 crore through illegal means and concealing the information of Tk 2.16 crore in their wealth statements.

The investigation officer of the case pressed charges against the three with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court, Dhaka, on March 31, 2009.

Earlier, Tarique was sentenced to life in jail in the August 21 grenade attack cases. He was also sentenced on different terms of punishment in two other cases, including the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.