Court Correspondent :Dhaka’s Divisional Special Judge Court felt ’embarrassed’ on the third day fixed for submission of argument in the graft case filed against former military dictator HM Ershad and three others in connection with radar purchase.Judge Abdur Rashid Wednesday sat in his courtroom and declared ‘I feeling embarrassed in the case. I shall not hear the argument of the case and the case will be sent back’. However, he did not mention any reason about his decision.On June 5, Special Public Prosecutor Shaheen Ahmed Khan was continuing submission of argument on behalf of the prosecution. Later, the court fixed June 11 for submission of further argument.The prosecution on May 29 started arguments in the radar purchase graft case.Twenty-two years ago, now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAC) filed the case against HM Ershad and four others with Cantonment Police Station on May 4, 1992. Abdus Sattar Sarkar, a former BAC official pressed charges against Ershad and four others on October 27, 1994.According to the case statement, Ershad, who is now a Special Envoy to the Prime Minister in collusion with others had caused a loss of Tk 64.04 crore to the state exchequer by purchasing radars from the USA instead of France for Bangladesh Air Force when he was in power.The court framed charges against Ershad and others on August 12, 1995. The government later dropped charges against another accused Shahazad Ali, a director of United Traders Limited.Two other accused are former Air Force chiefs Air Vice Marshal (retired) Sultan Mahmud and Mamtaj Uddin Ahmed. Another accused AKM Musa is on the run from the beginning of the case.
