Cumilla Arson Case: Khaleda's bail plea hearing tomorrow

The hearing of the bail petition filed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in a case filed over the 2015 arson attack on a bus in Chauddagram upazila in Comilla will be held tomorrow.

Comilla Senior Judicial Magistrate Judge Mustain Billah passed the order yesterday, asking the jail authorities to produce her before court during the hearing.

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Khaleda, who has been in Dhaka old central jail since the High Court sentenced her to five years in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on Feb 8, was shown arrested in the case last month.

Eight people were killed and 20 others wounded in the arson attack on a bus in Chauddagram during a BNP-led alliance's movement on February 3, 2015.

Two cases were filed over the incident -- one for the killings and the other for the use of explosives.

Khaleda and 76 other people were accused in the murder case.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday submitted to the Supreme Court a concise statement on its appeal against the High Court order that granted bail to the BNP chairperson in the graft case.

ACC lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan placed the 28-page concise statement saying that the HC did not consider the gravity of the offence committed by Khaleda, a former prime minister, when it granted her bail.

The defence lawyers did not submit any medical certificate, although they claimed she was suffering from different diseases, the ACC said in the statement.

The HC granted her bail upon consideration of old age, social status and short sentence -- none of which is a legal ground for granting bail, the ACC lawyer told The Daily Star, citing the statement.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court will hear the appeal against the HC's order of bail granted to Khaleda on May 8, the ACC lawyer added.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam recently told this correspondent that his office will submit a separate concise statement to the apex court this week on the government's appeal against the bail order passed by the HC.

Khaleda's lawyers are supposed to submit two separate concise statements to the SC on the same appeals in two weeks, after the ACC and government submit their summary statements, he added.

Following two separate leave-to-appeal petitions filed by the ACC and the government, the SC stayed the HC bail order on March 19.

The apex court also allowed the ACC and the government to move separate appeals before this court and fixed May 8 for hearing.

The HC, on March 12, granted Khaleda Zia four months' bail on four grounds -- a short sentence of five years, health condition, facing trial, and the case records reaching the court.