Dhaka: The High Court Thursday quashed a case filed against Sheikh Selim, Presidium Member of the ruling Awami League, over an attack on former Prime Minister and BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia’s motorcade on her Pirojpur trip in 2001.

A High Court bench comprising justices Mohammad Shamsul Huda and Abu Bakar Siddique pronounced the verdict exonerating all the accused.

According to the case statement, some unidentified strangers attacked Khaleda Zia’s caravan in Keraniganj on her way to Pirojpur on January 14, 2001. One aggrieved man named Nazim Uddin filed a case against 35 persons, including Sheikh Selim, with Keraniganj Police Station in this connection on January 14, 2002.

A total of 35 suspects, including Selim, were charge-sheeted on May 5, 2003. Sheikh Selim applied for dismissal of the case before the court on July 7, 2003. Later, on August 9, 2003, the HC issued a rule asking why the case “should not be quashed”.     

Barrister Fazle Nur Tapash MP stood for his paternal uncle Sheikh Selim. He told journalists after the court ruling that the case was filed “to harass” Sheikh Selim.

Incidentally, the scrapping of the case came at a time when "political harassment" cases, mainly against the ruling-party leaders and workers, are being bundled out by the AL-led Grand Alliance government.        

BDST: 04:05 Hrs, June 3, 2010.
JA/MS/MMA/MUA