Police find no trace of assets owned by Tarique, Zubaida

Staff Reporter :
Police could not trace any movable and immovable assets owned by BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman and his wife Zubaida Rahman.
In a progress report submitted to a Special Court in Dhaka, the Cantonment Police Station stated that they could not trace of any property of the couple.
After getting the report, the Special Court on Thursday directed authorities concerned of the government to publish a gazette notification 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 of the Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court, Md Adaduzzaman, passed the order following the report submition by Cantonment Police Station on execution of property attachment issued against the couple.
The same court on January 5 ordered the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of the 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 January 19.
In the progress report on the order to confiscate the properties of Tarique Rahman and his wife Zubaida Rahman, the police said that they have not found any trace of the property of these two fugitives.
ACC’s Court Inspector Aminul Islam said, “The OC of the Cantonment Police Station submitted a report to the court saying that they couldn’t trace any property of Tarique Rahman and Zubaida Rahman.”
Then the court ordered the government to publish a gazette notification through BG Press asking the couple to appear before the court on February 6 this year.
Aminul Islam said, “Court ordered to publish the gazette notification through BG Press. However, there was no mention of publication of the notification in any newspaper.”
Barrister Kaytser Kamal, a counsel of Tarique Rahman and Zubaida Rahman, said, “This case is totally politically motivated. This court order is another blatant form of using the state machinery by an unelected and autocratic government to divert the ongoing movement led by BNP Acting Chairperson Tarique Rahman to restore democracy in the country.”
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 48.2 million through illegal means and concealing the information of Tk 21.6 million 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 Rahman 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.