Zia challenges HC order over graft case

Beleaguered former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia today moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on a case that accuses her of graft involving funds worth USD 40,000 in a corruption case.
The two pleas will be heard by a chamber judge next week, said her lawyer Ragib Rouf Chowdhury.
The High Court earlier turned down two of the 71-year-old Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief's pleas suspending the case after her request to have its investigating officer cross-examined again was rejected by a special court.
Khaleda's lawyers sought fresh testimonies and cross-examinations on April 17 after objecting to the deposition by the case's Investigating Officer Harunur Rashid.

But Dhaka's third special judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar rejected the plea, bdnews reported.
Two pleas were filed at the High Court for an order scrapping the decision but were rejected on May 15.

The BNP chief is among the four accused of embezzling 31.5 million taka in the case filed by Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) in 2010.
The others are Khaleda's former political secretary Harris Chowdhury, his personal assistant Ziaul Islam Munna, former Dhaka City mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka's personal assistant Monirul Islam Khan.
The trial began on March 19, 2013 after all four were indicted.