The High Court has sent Khaleda Zia’s appeal for scrapping Barapukuria coal mine graft case against her to the chief justice for ‘next order’.
Published : 05 Apr 2015, 10:29 PM
The bench of Justice Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice JBM Hassan issued an order to his effect on Sunday.
The same bench also referred the BNP chief;s three more petitions over Gatco and Niko corruption cases to the chief justice for a decision.
The bench was scheduled on Sunday to announce its verdict on the former prime minister’s petition on the Barapukuria coal mine case.
It was also supposed to hear rules issued by the court on petitions by Khaleda over the Gatco and Niko cases.
ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan turned up at the court before beginning of the hearing but Khaleda’s counsellor Badruddoza Badal was late.
Later Khan told bdnews24.com: “The court has sent the Barapukuria mine graft case to the chief justice due to the non-cooperation by Khaleda Zia’s lawyers.”
The ACC prosecuted Khaleda, 10 ministers of her erstwhile cabinet and six others on Feb 26, 2008 during the army-installed caretaker government for the alleged graft in awarding a work of the mine.
It pressed charges in court against the accused on Oct 5 the same year.
The case statement said the defendants had caused a loss of around 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 stayed proceedings of the case for three months and issued a rule asking why the case would not be quashed.
The trial process was stuck when the stay order was upheld following an appeal.
Hearing on the High Court rule began after the national anti-graft agency took initiative early this year to resume proceedings of the case.
Following the hearing, the bench of Justice Chowdhury and Justice Hassan on Mar 5 scheduled Mar 10 for announcing verdict but later the date was deferred to Apr 5.
Meanwhile, Khaleda’s lawyers filed petition with the relevant section of the court seeking change of the bench. Later they submitted the same petition to the chief justice.
The ACC recently took initiative to resume proceedings of the Gatco and Niko graft cases filed during the caretaker government.
The commission pressed charges against 11 accused including Khaleda on May 5, 2008 in Niko case.
The case statement says the accused inflicted a loss Tk 137 billion on the state by awarding the gas exploration job to Canadian company Niko Resources.
The Gatco case was filed on Sep 2, 2007 against 13 people including Khaleda and her youngest son late Arafat Rahman Coco.
The ACC pressed charges against 24 people in the case on May 13, 208. Khaleda and Coco were arrested a day after the case was lodged.
According to the chargesheet, the accused caused the state to count a loss of around Tk 145.63 million by awarding the container handling work at Dhaka Inland Container Depot (ICD) and Chittagong port to Gatco.
The High Court froze both the cases on petitions by Khaleda.