The Daily Morning Voice Online Desk: A Dhaka court today directed authorities concerned of the government to publish a gazette asking BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman and his wife Zubaida Rahman to appear before it on February 6 in a graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). Judge Md Adaduzzaman of Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court passed the order after getting reports from Cantonment Police Station on execution of property attachment issued against the couple. If the couple fails to comply with the court order, the trial against them will continue in their absence, said Dhaka Additional Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Tapash Kumar Pal.

The same court on January 5 ordered the officer-in-charge of Cantonment Police Station to confiscate moveable (bank accounts) and immovable (land-related) properties of Tarique and his wife Zubaida in the case. The court also directed the OC to submit a progress report on the implementation of the order by today. 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 However, the trial proceedings against Iqbal Mand Banu were rescinded.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 cases. He was also sentenced to different terms in two other cases, including the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.