The High Court will issue an order on BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s pleas challenging the legality of the Gatco graft case any day.
Published : 17 Jun 2015, 07:13 PM
The bench of Justice Md Nuruzzaman and Justice Abdur Rob issued a CAV at the end of hearing the rule on the two pleas, issued seven years ago, on Wednesday.
The Latin term 'Curia advisari vult' (CAV for short) literally means 'the court wishes to be advised', meaning it reserves the judgment for another day.
The court also set June 24 to hear the rule on the BNP chief’s petition seeking cancellation of Barapukuria coal mine graft case.
In the hearing of the rule relating to the GATCO case, lawyers AJ Mohammad Ali, Mahbub Uddin Khokan and Raghib Rauf Chowdhury represented Khaleda.
Khurshid Alam represented the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).
The BNP chief’s lawyers told the court in the hearing that there was no specific charges of corruption or embezzlement of money against her in the Gatco graft case.
A criminal case against her for an administrative decision, involving approval of a tender as a prime minister, cannot proceed the way it has.
Her lawyer Chowdhury said the case did not bring the charge that she had been benefited from the agreement with Gatco.
He claimed Khaleda had not broken the Rules of Business or Rules of Procedure while approving the agreement.
ACC’s Alam said no one can be spared in a criminal case.
Whether the crime was committed is a matter subjected to factual debate, meaning it is under the jurisdiction of a judicial court, not a writ petition, Alam argued.
Khaleda’s lawyers said a criminal case can be cancelled through a writ petition, if it appears to be contradictory to the Constitution or needs constitutional explanation or if a decision seems to be intentionally dishonest.
During the regime of the military-backed caretaker government, three graft cases were filed against former prime minister Khaleda. They are related to Gatco, Niko and Barapukuria coal mine.
ACC has recently moved to revive the cases, stayed following court orders for a long time.
The High Court heard the rule on the legality of the Niko graft case from Apr 19 to May 28.
It will issue the order on the Niko case rule on Thursday.
The Gatco case was filed on Sep 2, 2007 against 13 including Khaleda and her youngest son, the 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 faced 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.