Bangla SC upholds Khaleda's bail in Comilla arson case

Bangladesh's Supreme Court today upheld a High Court order that granted six-month bail to ex-premier and opposition BNP chief Khaleda Zia in a deadly arson attack case in 2015.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order.

The court also ordered to dispose the maintainability of the petition within seven days, Dhaka Tribune reported.

Khaleda, 72, has been in jail since she was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in a graft case in February.

Eight people were killed and 20 others were injured when unknown assailants hurled a petrol bomb at the bus during the BNP-led alliance's movement on February 3, 2015.

Two cases were filed against Khaleda in connection to the incident.

On May 28, the High Court granted a six-month bail to Khaleda in the case filed for vandalising a covered van in Chauddagram of Comilla district during a long-term strike called by the BNP-led alliance.

Later, the government filed a petition with the Appellate Division seeking a stay on the bail order.

On February 8, Khaleda was sent to jail after a special court sentenced her to five years' rigorous imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

The ex-premier on November 30, 2014 lost her last ditch effort to evade the graft trial as the Supreme Court turned down her second 'leave to appeal' petition challenging her indictment and asked her to face trial in the lower court.

Earlier, the high court validated the trial in the lower court which on March 19, 2014 had indicted Khaleda on two graft charges brought by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

The ACC alleged that the two charities, the other being the Zia Charitable Trust, existed only on paper and a huge amount of money was misappropriated in the name of the two organisations while Zia was premier during the Bangladesh Nationalist Party's (BNP) 2001-2006 government.