SC extends stay on Khaleda’s bail in two Comilla cases

Banglapress, Dhaka: The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday extended stay on Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia’s bail until June 24 in two Comilla cases. A three-member SC bench, led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, came up with the stay order.
In one case Khaleda Zia, also former prime minister, was the accused of abetting the killing of eight passengers by torching a bus at Chouddagram, Comilla during the nationwide blockade of roads and highways in 2015.
In the other case she was also accused of abetting of setting a covered van on fire at Chouddagram, Comilla, during the nationwide blockade of roads and highways in 2015.
Earlier, on Tuesday, Appellate Division’s chamber judge, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique set May 31, the last working day before the 23-day summer vacation, for hearing by a regular bench a provisional petition the government filed on Monday seeking leave to appeal against bails granted to Khaleda Zia by the High Court Division on Monday.
On Monday, Khaleda Zia was granted ad-interim bails for six months in both the cases.
The HC ,however, rejected her application seeking bail in a defamation case filed by a ruling Awami League leader in the court of Narail’s chief judicial magistrate alleging that Khaleda Zia by expressing doubts about the number of people killed during the Liberation War had defamed the War of Independence.