A Dhaka court on Wednesday deferred till July 3 the hearing on the framing of charges against the acting Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and 45 other BNP-led alliance leaders in an arson case.
The Dhaka speedy trial court judge, Mohammad Erfan Ullah, passed the order after hearing petitions filed by the accused seeking time for the hearing.
The court on June 13 posted for Wednesday the hearing after examining the records of the case filed with the Tejgaon police in connection with a bus being set on fire near the Prime Minister’s Office on April 29.
Of the 46 named accused in the charge sheet, Fakhrul and 13 others were present in the courtroom during Wednesday’s hearing.
Former Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain could not appear in court because of his illness, his counsel told the court moving a petition seeking time for the charge hearing.
Five opposition alliance lawmakers — BNP leaders MK Anwar, AM Mahbub Uddin Khokan and Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie, Liberal Democratic president Oli Ahmed and Bangladesh Jatiya Party chairman Andaleeve Rahman Partho — filed five petitions seeking time for the hearing.
Moving the petitions, their counsel told the court that they could not appear in the court as they were busy with the ongoing parliamentary session.
Four other accused — the acting Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami amir Moqbul Ahmed and three other Jamaat leaders — are still on the run and the court ordered their trial in their absence.
The rest 22 leaders, who are still in jail in connection with other cases, were not produced in court.
The court on May 21 accepted the charge sheet submitted against the 46.
The Detective Branch on May 10 submitted the charge sheet against  the 46 leaders and activists to the Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate’s court in the case.