Gatco graft case against Khaleda to continue: SC
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday cleared the way for a lower court concerned to continue the trial proceedings against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in Gatco corruption case. After dismissing two leave-to appeal petitions filed by Khaleda, the four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order. The BNP chief filed the petitions on May 10 last year seeking stay order on the trial proceeding at the lower court.
Khaleda also challenged the High Court verdict that rejected her writ petitions against the initiation and continuation of the case. Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan, counsel for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), told reporters that the trial proceeding against Khaleda in the Gatco graft case would run in the Special Judges Court 3 of Dhaka following the apex court order. But, Khaleda will remain on bail in the case, he added.
On August 5, 2015, the High Court rejected the writ petition filed by Khaleda challenging the initiation and continuation of the case.
On September 2, 2007, the ACC lodged the Gatco case against Khaleda, her youngest son late Arafat Rahman Koko, Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami and 10 others.
According to the case statement, there was corruption in the awarding of a contract to Global Agro Trade Company (Pvt) Ltd (Gatco) for container management at inland depots in Dhaka and Chittagong. The graft allegedly cost the state exchequer over Tk 1,000 crore. Khaleda was shown arrested in the case on September 2, 2007, and freed the following year after she secured bail in Gatco and three other cases.
