The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today upheld the High Court’s decision to annul four extortion cases filed against BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman during the military-backed caretaker government’s rule in 2007.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, led by Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam, dismissed four separate leave to appeal petitions filed by the state, which had challenged the High Court’s verdicts.
A group of pro-BNP lawyers, including Zainul Abedin, Md Bodruddoza Badal, Kayser Kamal, and Md Ruhul Quddus Kazal, represented Tarique Rahman, while Additional Attorney General Aneek R Haque represented the state during the hearing.
On October 23 last year, the High Court annulled the four extortion cases filed against Tarique Rahman, after hearing the rules questioning the legality of the trials. These rules were issued by the High Court in response to petitions filed by Tarique in 2008, while he was in Bangladesh.
Advocate Maksud Ullah, a lawyer for the BNP leader, had earlier explained that one Azam Ahmed filed one of the four cases at Gulshan Police Station on March 8, 2007, accusing Tarique of extorting Tk 1 crore.
On March 27 of the same year, Aftab Uddin, managing director of Reza Construction, filed another case at the same police station, accusing Tarique of extorting Tk 1.32 crore.
On April 1, 2007, Mir Zahir Hossain filed another case at Dhanmondi Police Station, claiming Tarique extorted Tk 53 lakh.
The fourth case was filed at Gulshan Police Station on May 4, 2007, for allegedly demanding a dividend from a business project’s earnings.
With these four cases now scrapped, Tarique Rahman faces a total of 22 criminal cases. He has been convicted and sentenced to various prison terms in four of these cases.
