HC order on Khaleda�s Niko case today
The High Court will deliver its verdict today, on a writ petition filed by the BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia challenging the legality of the Niko corruption case filed against her.
Yesterday, after hearing the closing arguments from both sides the HC bench comprising Justice Mohammad Nuruzzaman Noni and Justice Zafar Ahmed fixed the date for delivering the judgment.
Meanwhile, the HC bench of Justice Mohammad Nuruzzaman Noni and Justice Abdur Rab yesterday kept CAV (curia advisari vult, a Latin term that means the court wishes to be advised and the judgment is reserved) the two petitions filed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia that challenged the legality of the trial proceedings in the Gatco corruption case.
After hearing the arguments from both sides, the HC bench said, Hearing concluded in the case; judgment CAV.
In the Niko case, Khaleda Zias lawyer Barrister Ragib Rouf told The Independent, the HC bench will deliver its order on Thursday at 2.00 pm. Khaleda had filed a writ petition challenging the legality of the Niko corruption case. The same bench had concluded the final hearing on the writ petition on 28 May.
The ACC had, on 9 December 2007, filed the Niko graft case against Khaleda Zia and four others in connection with a Tk 137.77 crore loss to the national exchequer caused by the signing of an oil and gas exploration agreement with Niko during the previous BNP regime.
Later, on 5 May 2008, The ACC submitted charges against 11 more people.
Khaleda Zia then filed a petition in the HC challenging the legality of the case against her.
On 9 July 2008 the High Court adjourned the proceedings of the case, pending a decision on the writ petition. The court also issued a rule, asking to know why the proceedings of the case should not be declared illegal.
Rejecting the four petitions filed by Khaleda Zia to defer the rule hearing, the HC bench started hearing the seven-year-old writ petition challenging the legality of the Gatco corruption case filed against the BNP Chairperson.
On 7 April, Chief Justice SK Sinha assigned benches to deal with the Niko, Gatco and Barapukura coalmine graft cases.
From 19 April this year, the HC bench started hearing the arguments from AJ Mohammad Ali and Barrister Badrudduza Badal on behalf of Khaleda Zia in Gatco rule case while M Khushid Alam Khan argued on behalf of the ACC.
On 2 September 2007, the ACC filed the Gatco corruption casethat allegedly took place during the military-installed caretaker regimeagainst Khaleda, her youngest son Arafat Rahman Koko and 11 others.
According to the case documents, the defendants illegally awarded contracts of container handling at the Chittagong port and the Dhakas Inland Container Depot to the firm Gatco, causing a loss of Tk 145.64 million to the state exchequer.
On 27 Sept 2007, Khaleda and Koko filed two petitions with the HC challenging the legality of the case under the Emergency Rule Act and sought a stay order on the trials proceedings.
In 2008 a High Court bench issued a rule and stayed the trials proceedings after hearing the BNP chiefs petition.
In 2008 again, Khaleda filed another petition challenging the legality of the case filed under the ACC Act, following which the High Court once again stayed the proceedings of the case.
The decision on whether the Niko case can proceed or not is expected today, and a decision on the Gatco case can also be expected soon.
