Staff Correspondent:

BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia has been acquitted in three cases, including murder, filed for the 2015 petrol bomb attack and fire in a covered van in Chauddagram of Cumilla on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway.

This was confirmed by Comilla District PP Md. Kaimul Haque Rinku.

He also said that the cases of the remaining accused have been withdrawn in the wake of the application to withdraw the cases filed by the then government considering them as political cases.

Confirming this information to journalists on Monday afternoon, Kaimul Haque Rinku said, “Eight passengers were killed in a petrol bomb attack on a bus in Jagmohanpur of Chauddagram upazila on February 3, 2015. The police filed two separate cases in the case filed under the Murder and Explosives Acts. 78 people, including BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, were included in the chargesheet in the case.

The plaintiff in this case was the then police officer of Chauddagram Police Station, Nuruzzaman Howlader. In the changed circumstances after the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, the additional district and sessions judge Court 2, Judge Shafiqul Islam, discharged Begum Khaleda Zia from the case as the involvement of Begum Khaleda Zia was not proven in the hearing of the two cases, because at that time, Begum Khaleda Zia was blocked by a sand truck at her Gulshan residence. On the other hand, 32 people, including BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, were also accused in a sabotage case in the incident of burning a covered van in Haiderpur area of Chauddagram on January 25, 2015. Later, a charge sheet was filed in the court with the names of 10 more people included in this case. The plaintiff in this case was also Police SI Nuruzzaman Howlader of Chauddagram Police Station. As BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia was not found involved in this, additional district and sessions judge Afroza Shiuli of the First Court discharged her.

District PP Kaimul Haque Rinku also said that an application was made to the Law Ministry to withdraw these three cases considering that they were filed with political motives during the previous Awami League government. The Ministry has accepted the application and ordered the withdrawal of the three cases. From now on, there are no cases against Khaleda Zia and BNP central leaders at Chauddagram Police Station.