Barapukuria corruption
HC rejects Khaleda plea for scrapping case
The High Court yesterday rejected BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zias plea, clearing the way for the trial court to resume its proceedings against her in connection with the Barapukuria corruption case. After vacating its earlier order that had stayed the trial proceedings in the case, the HC bench comprising Justice Md Nuruzzaman and Justice Abdur Rob came up with the verdict.
In its order, the HC observed that the petition was not filed in a proper manner and the case has elements of intention of graft in activities of the coal mine. Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan, counsel for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), told reporters that following the HCs verdict there is no legal bar for the trial court for resuming the trial proceedings in the case against Khaleda Zia.
In response to a query, Khan said that the BNP chief had secured bail from the trial court in the case and she will remain on bail in the case as the trial court will look into the matter.
On the other hand, barrister Ragib Rouf Chowdhury, one of the counsels for Khaleda Zia, said that they would file an appeal petition in the apex court against the HC verdict.
On February 26, 2008, the ACC filed the case accusing Khaleda and 15 others of causing a loss of Tk. 159 crore to the state exchequer by awarding a contract for operating the Barapukuria coal mine to a Chinese company, abusing her power as the Prime Minister.
In October 2008, Khaleda Zia filed a writ petition with the HC challenging the legality of the trial proceedings.
In response to the petition, the HC stayed the proceedings for three months and issued a rule asking the government to explain why the case proceedings against Khaleda Zia should not be scrapped. It was upheld by the Supreme Court, bringing the case to a standstill. Khaleda secured permanent bail on January 15, 2012.
The final hearing on the High Court rule started after the ACC took the initiative to revive the case earlier this year.
On August 23, the same bench of the HC rejected Khaledas plea for calling the lower courts records in the case.
It also rejected the plea for calling the final report filed to the commission in June 2008 by the investigator, relieving Khaleda and others of the graft charges before the submission of the charge sheet in the case on October 5, 2008.
Earlier this year, the HC rejected other petitions of the BNP chief clearing the way for the lower courts concerned to continue the trial proceedings against her in Gatco, Niko, Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust graft cases.
The trial proceedings of two other cases Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust graft cases are underway in the special tribunal set up at the Bakhsibazar Alia Madrasha field in the old part of Dhaka city.
Khaleda Zia, who left Dhaka for the UK on Tuesday night for a health check-up, is currently in London. She will return after spending Eid-ul-Azha with her elder son, Tarique Rahman and his family.
