Online Desk: A Dhaka court today said the trial against BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman and his wife Zubaida Rahman in a corruption case would continue in their absence absentia. Judge Md Asaduzzaman of Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court passed the order as Tarique and Zubaida.  The judge set March 29 for hearing on charge framing against them in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Earlier on January 19, the court directed the government to publish a gazette asking the couple to appear before it by February 6 in the case. Quoting the gazette, the judge said that the court had earlier issued arrest warrants against them, but police failed to arrest them as they went abroad. The judge also directed police to confiscate their moveable and immoveable properties, but police failed to do so. Since there is no chance of their appearance, the trial against them will continue in their absence, the judge said in his order.

Tarique and Zubaida have been in London since 2008. On September 26, 2007, the anti-graft body filed the case with Kafrul Police Station against Tarique, his wife Zubaida and her mother Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu for amassing assets worth Tk 4.82 crore through illegal means and concealing the information of Tk 2.16 crore in their wealth statements. The investigation officer of the case pressed charges against the three with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court, Dhaka, on March 31, 2009. However, the trial proceedings against Iqbal Mand Banu were rescinded. Earlier, Tarique was sentenced to life in jail in the August 21 grenade attack case. He was also sentenced to different terms in two other cases, including the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.