Shawdesh desk:

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday cleared the way for the continuation of the trial proceedings of a corruption case against Dr Zubaida Rahman, wife of BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman.

A four-member bench, led by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, rejected a leave-to-appeal petition filed by Zubaida.

With this order, there is now no bar for the continuation of the trial in the lower court, said a counsel for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Khurshid Alam.

“Dr Zubaida has to surrender before the trial court judge within eight weeks,” he said.

Advocates AJ Mohammad Ali and Kaisar Kamal appeared for Zubaida, while Attorney General AM Amin Uddin represented the state.

On April 7, the Appellate Division fixed April 13 as the date of judgment in the case.

On September 26, 2007, the ACC lodged a complaint with Kafrul Police against Zubaida and her mother Iqbal Mand Banu for amassing illegal wealth of Tk 4.81 crore and concealing the information.

In the same year, the High Court issued a rule suspending the trial proceedings in the case after hearing a petition filed by Zubaida.

On April 12, 2017, the HC rejected the rule and asked her to surrender before the court within eight weeks.

Later, Zubaida had appealed in the Supreme Court against the HC order.