HC starts hearing Khaleda’s pleas on Barapukuria, Gatco, Niko corruption cases

The High Court has started hearing BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s pleas on three corruption cases.

The bench of Justices Md Nuruzzaman and Zafar Ahmed started hearing the four pleas over Barapukuria coal mine, Gatco and Niko graft cases on Sunday.
 
The bench at the outset rejected a plea by the BNP chief’s lawyers to stay the hearing in view of the upcoming bar council elections.
 
The court set Wednesday for the next hearing. Hearing on the pleas will be held on Thursday also.
 
Lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan stood for the Anti-Corruption Commission, the plaintiff, while Badruddoza Badal for the defence.
 
After hearing Khaleda’s petition for quash the Barapukuria coal mine case on Mar 3 and 5, the bench of Justices Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and JBM Hassan had set Mar 10 for the order but then deferred it to Apr 5.
 
Meanwhile, on Apr 2, Khaleda’s lawyers sought a transfer of the hearing to another bench through a petition to Chief Justice SK Sinha.
 
The chief justice later sent the petition to the bench of Justices Nuruzzaman and Ahmed.
 
The cases
 
The graft cases were filed against the former prime minister in 2008 after the army-backed caretaker government assumed power.
 
The ACC recently decided to revive the cases suspended by court orders.
 
Khaleda, along with 10 ministers of her erstwhile cabinet and six others, is accused of graft in awarding a contract of the Barapukuria coal mine.
 
It pressed charges in court against all the accused on Oct 5 the same year.
 
The case says the defendants caused a loss of Tk 1.59 billion to the national exchequer by awarding the coal extraction, management and maintenance of the mine to the Consortium of China National Machineries Import of Export Corporation (CMC).
 
The High Court on Oct 16, 2008 had stayed the proceedings of the case for three months and issued a rule asking why the case should not be quashed.
 
The trial process came at a halt when the stay order was upheld following an appeal.
 
The Gatco and Niko graft cases were also filed when the caretaker government was in power.
 
The ACC pressed charges against 11, including Khaleda, on May 5, 2008 for allegedly causing a loss of Tk 137 billion to the state by awarding the gas exploration job to a Canadian company, Niko Resources.
 
The Gatco case was filed on Sep 2, 2007 against 13 including Khaleda and her youngest son, late Arafat Rahman Coco.
 
Charges were brought against 24 people in the case on May 13, 2008, leading to Khaleda and Coco’s arrest the next day.
 
The chargesheet in the case said the state counted a loss of Tk 145.63 million with Gatco being awarded the container handling work at the Dhaka Inland Container Depot (ICD) and the Chittagong port.
 
Later, the High Court had frozen both cases following petitions by the BNP chief.