Radar graft case against Ershad
Conclude trial by Mar 31, HC asks lower court
The High Court (HC) yesterday directed the lower court to conclude the trial proceedings by March 31 of a case filed against former president HM Ershad for alleged corruption in purchasing radars for the Air Force during his tenure. The HC also ordered the lower court concerned to record statements of 26 prosecution witnesses in the case.
The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice JBM Hassan passed the order following a petition filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission seeking its directives on the lower court to record statements from 26 out of 38 prosecution witnesses.
The ACC moved to the HC as the trial court, on November 8, dismissed its plea to record the depositions of the witnesses afresh, who had not given their deposition at the court.
ACC lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan said the trial court had recorded the statements of only 12 witnesses out of 38 witnesses in the case. The ACC had filed an application before the trial court seeking its order to produce the other 26 witnesses so that they can give their fresh deposition in connection with the case.
The now-defunct Bureau of Anti Corruption, on May 4, 1992, had filed the case against the Jatiya Party leader for causing a loss of more than Tk. 64 crore to the state exchequer by buying substandard radars from the US in higher prices instead of buying a more modern version of the equipment from France.
