DHAKA: A Dhaka court Wednesday deferred the recording of prosecution witness’ (PW) deposition in the Zia Orphanage Trust embezzlement case and Zia Charitable Trust case till June 19.

Justice Bashudeb Roy of Dhaka Special Judge Court-3 passed the deferment order in response to a time plea filed by BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s lawyer Sanullah Mian.

Earlier, the court fixed Wednesday to begin recording of PW statement.

The defendant’s counsels came up with time petition claiming that verdict on a writ petition challenging the appointment of justice in the cases remained pending at the high court.

Sanaullah said, “We, on behalf of Khaleda, appeared before the court and applied for time extension on PW deposition recording and the court deferred the date.”

PWs, also plaintiff of the case Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) assistant director Harunur Rashid, and ACC special public prosecutor Mosharof Hossain Kajol had appeared before the court to give deposition.

On April 21, the same court fixed May 21 the date to begin recording of PW statement in the cases.

In the petition, showing several causes Khaleda Zia sought time extension 42 times in Zia Orphanage Trust case and 12 times in Zia Charitable Trust case.

The accused for these two cases are Senior Vice-President of BNP Tarique Rahman, Kazi Salimul Haque Kamal, Sharfuddin Ahmed, Ziaul Islam Munna, Monirul Islam Khan and former Political Secretary of Khaleda Zia Harichh Chowdhury.

However, Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) filed two cases against them in 2008 and 2011 for embezzling money using the name of the charitable organizations.

BDST: 1158 HRS MAY 21, 2014