BNP chief and former prime minister Khaleda Zia yesterday said the corruption allegations brought against her in newspapers are false and fabricated. "All these are false and baseless," she told reporters emerging out of Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Hospital yesterday afternoon when newspersons queried about the allegations.She went to the hospital to visit BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mahbubuddin Ahmed who underwent a prostate gland operation on May 29. She stayed beside him for sometime and enquired about his health. Replying to a query about the allegations with reference to the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) sources, Khaleda said, "All these allegations have been published in the newspapers with an evil motive."
According to newspapers reports, former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar during interrogation said he had the consent of Khaleda Zia and her son Tarique Rahman before taking a bribe of Tk 20 crore from the Bashundhara Group chairman in exchange for not implicating his son in a murder case.
When reporters enquired about her well being, she said, "As you can see...I'm so-so." She thanked all the party leaders and workers who stand beside her at this time of crisis and urged them to remain united. "I urge you all to remain united... I will remain beside the people of the country in future as I worked for their progress and prosperity in the past," she said.
The BNP chairperson later on visited former BNP lawmaker Mossaddak Ali Falu's ailing mother Romon Bibi, 77, who is suffering from old age complications at Birdem Hospital in the capital.