The chief justice has assigned a new bench to hear pleas by BNP chief Khaleda Zia regarding three corruption cases.
Published : 08 Apr 2015, 03:26 PM
The pleas over Barapukuria coal mine, Gatco and Niko graft cases will be heard by High Court Justices Md Nuruzzaman and Zafar Ahmed on Wednesday.
Earlier, Justices Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and JBM Hassan were hearing the pleas when Khaleda’s appeal for the scrapping of the Barapukuria case against her reached the verdict stage.
The verdict, scheduled on Sunday, was, however, not delivered after Khaleda’s lawyers urged the chief justice to change the bench. The judges then referred all three cases to the chief justice for the ‘next order’.
“Khaleda Zia had four pleas in three cases. The chief justice has assigned a new bench to hear her pleas,” said Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan.
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 are 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 production, management and maintenance of the mine to 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 caretaker government was in power. The ACC pressed charges against 11, including Khaleda, on May 5, 2008 for 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, 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 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.