Tarique Rahman, the son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and the current acting chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has been acquitted in all ongoing and pending legal cases filed against him. These cases involved several serious allegations, including his alleged role in the 2004 August 21 grenade attack, corruption linked to the Zia Orphanage Trust, charges of sedition, and accusations of money laundering.
The most recent acquittals were handed down by the Appellate Division and the High Court, both of which ruled in Tarique Rahman's favor, effectively bringing an end to all legal proceedings against him.
In the grenade attack case, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2018, the High Court overturned the verdict in December 2024, citing insufficient evidence to uphold the conviction. Likewise, in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case, where both Tarique Rahman and his mother Khaleda Zia had previously been convicted in 2018, the Appellate Division nullified the verdict in January 2025. The court concluded that the evidence presented during the trial did not sufficiently support the conviction.
In addition, Tarique Rahman was acquitted in a money laundering case in March 2025. A sedition case filed against him back in 2015 has also been officially closed, with no further proceedings to follow. With these court decisions, all criminal and legal charges that had been pending against Tarique Rahman have now been dismissed, clearing him of all legal entanglements.
