ZIA CHARITABLE TRUST CASE : Testimony rewritten after defence protests [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

ZIA CHARITABLE TRUST CASE : Testimony rewritten after defence protests

Local September 11, 2015

The Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-3 on Thursday recorded the testimony of a prosecution witness in Zia Charitable Trust case again following protests from the defence counsel who alleged that the previous recording was unlawful.
The defence counsel repeatedly alleged that there was a similarity between the proceedings in the case and that of the special courts during the military-backed interim regime.
The judge of the court, Md Abu Ahmed Jamadar, replied that it was not a ‘kangaroo court.’
Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairman Khaleda Zia along with other accused in the case appeared before the court amidst four tier security in and around the makeshift courtroom at Bakshibazar.
The court recorded again the testimonies of the eighth prosecution witness, Hafizur Rahman, the then deputy general manager of the Prime Minister’s Office branch of Sonali Bank.
The fifth, sixth and seventh prosecution witnesses, HM Ismail, Sheikh Mokbul Ahmed and Fahmida Rahman, all from different banks, were also cross-examined.
The court adjourned the proceedings till September 17 despite repeated request from the defence counsels to fix the date after Eid-ul-Azha.
The courtroom was in an uproar when defence counsel including Abdur Razzak Khan, AJ Mohammad Ali and Mir Nasir Uddin alleged that Hafizur, now a general manager, was being allowed to read the exhibits in violation of the Evidence Act
Anti-Corruption Commission prosecutor Musharraf Hossain Kajal argued that Hafizur was a witness to the seizure of documents and he could read parts of the documents.
The defence counsel argued that the witness could only see the certain portions of the documents including signature.
At once, defence counsel AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon said that there was a similarity between the proceedings in the court and that of the special courts set up in parliament complex during the interim regime.
The judge objected the defence counsel’s contention saying, ‘I am not a kangaroo court…I framed charge against ruling Awami League lawmaker [Abdur Rahman] Bodi just two days ago.’
‘The government had already thrown away Bodi,’ Khokon replied.
Defence counsel Mir Nasir Uddin said that the court must go by the law.
After 15-munitues of hot arguments and uproar, the judge declared that he would record again Hafizur’s testimonies recorded few minutes ago.
Hafizur testified that he signed a seizure list at his office when investigation officer Harun-or-Rashid approached him in the presence of two others on October 3, 2001.
In cross-examination, fifth prosecution witness HM Ismail, the then principal officer at Pubali Bank’s Naya Paltan branch and currently senior principal officer at the foreign exchange branch, said that he provided original documents to the investigator on September 25, 2011 when he received a letter from the commission.
He said that he could not recall what was written in the letter served by the commission.
Ismail denied a suggestion that he had provided the documents illegally to the commission and committed an act of fraudulence.
The sixth prosecution witness, Sheikh Mokbul Ahmed, the then assistant general manager in Janata Bank’s Sathmasjid Road branch, now promoted to the deputy general manager at the regional office in Dhaka north, said that on September 28, 2011 the investigator visited their bank and prepared a seizure list.
The witness earlier told the court that the investigator had collected two pay order of Tk 7,99, 326 and an application filed by Harris Chowdhury’s assistant private secretary Ziaul Islam Munna for the pay order.
Mokbul testified that the pay orders were not made from any account but pay orders might be issued for anyone who had an introducer.
He said he was not aware whether issuance of any pay order for any person having no account with the bank concerned was illegal.