Dhaka, Oct 31 (V7N)- On Thursday, the High Court annulled the trial proceedings of a sedition case against Tarique Rahman, the acting chairman of BNP, along with ETV chairman Abdus Salam and two others. The ruling was made by a bench comprising Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain, following a hearing on a petition filed by Abdus Salam to quash the case.

The case had been registered at Tejgaon Police Station, accusing Tarique, Salam, and several unnamed individuals of broadcasting a "false, fabricated, and provocative" speech delivered by Tarique on January 5, 2015. In 2017, the High Court had previously stayed the trial proceedings and issued a directive to the state to justify why the case should not be dismissed.

Advocate Mohammad Siddique Ullah Miah, representing the petitioner, stated that the High Court found no grounds for the sedition charge, leading to the dismissal of the trial.

Additionally, the court also quashed a separate violence case against Khaleda Zia, the BNP Chairperson. This ruling followed a petition she filed in 2017 to annul the case, which had been registered at Darus Salam Police Station in Dhaka during the political unrest against the Sheikh Hasina-led government in 2015.

On Wednesday, the same High Court bench had also dismissed 11 other criminal cases against Khaleda Zia. A group of pro-BNP lawyers, including Zainul Abedin, AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Nasir Uddin Ahmed Ashim, Kayser Kamal, Gazi Kamrul Islam Sajal, Siddique Ullah Miah, Maksud Ullah, and Shanjid Siddique represented Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman, while Deputy Attorney General Jashim Uddin Sarker represented the state during the hearings.

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