BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has appealed to the chief justice to transfer her petition seeking cancellation of Barapukuria Coal Mine graft case to another High Court bench.
Published : 02 Apr 2015, 08:51 PM
The bench of Justices Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and JBM Hassan was scheduled to hear the petition on Apr 5.
Khaleda’s lawyers Khandker Mahbub Hossain, AJ Mohammad Ali, Mahbub Uddin Khokon and Badruddoza Badal filed the petition before Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha.
Badal said the chief justice accepted the petition for resolving the matter.
The case was filed against the former prime minister, 10 members of her cabinet and five others on Feb 26, 2008 during the tenure of military-backed caretaker government.
The ACC submitted the chargesheet against all 16 of them on Oct 5 the same year.
The ACC said the accused caused a loss of over Tk 1.58 billion to the state exchequer by signing a deal with a China-based consortium, the National Machineries Import and Export Corporation (CMC) to extract coal and manage and maintain the mine.
The High Court stayed the case for three months on Oct 16, 2008 and asked why the case should not be cancelled.
The High Court later also rejected an appeal by the state, continuing the stay.
The final hearing of the case restarted when the ACC revived it after seven years.
The bench of justices Chowdhury and Hassan held final hearings on Mar 3 and 5 and scheduled a verdict for Mar 10.
But the verdict date was deferred to Apr 5 after barristers Rafique-Ul Huq and Khokon and advocate Zainul Abedin on Mar 8 appealed to the court for further hearing.