Online Desk:
A court in Dhaka on Tuesday set March 18 to hold a hearing on charge framing in the Niko graft case against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and others.
Judge Sheikh Hafizur Rahman of Dhaka 9th special judge court passed the order this morning at the newly built courtroom in front of Keraniganj Central Jail.
Today was fixed for holding hearing on charge framing in the case. In the absence of prime accused Khaleda Zia, her lawyer Masud Ahmed Talukder conducted the hearing. The court then fixed March 18 for the rest of the hearing.
On December 9 in 2007, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case against five including Begum Khaleda Zia with Tejgaon police station for abusing power in signing a deal with Canadian company Niko for exploring and extracting gas.
The ACC on May 5 in 2008, submitted the charge-sheet against 11 including Khaleda Zia.
The other accused in the case are – BNP standing committee member Barrister Moudud Ahmed, former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain, then principal secretary to the prime minister Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, former acting secretary at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Khandaker Shahidul Islam, former senior assistant secretary CM Yusuf Hossain, Former Bapex general manager Mir Moinul Haque, former Bapex secretary Mohammad Shafiur Rahman, businessman Gias Uddin Al Mamun, former Bagerhat MP MAH Selim and Niko’s vice president for South Asia Kashem Sharif.
The ACC accused them of incurring a loss of more than Tk 13 thousand crore of state exchequer by that deal.
