ACC moves to revive Gatco graft case against Khaleda
The Anti-Corruption Commission has moved to revive the seven-year-old Global Agro Trade (Pvt) Co Ltd (Gatco) corruption case against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
The commission today prayed to the High Court to start hearing a rule in which it questioned the legality of filing the case under the emergency power rules of 2007.
ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan urged the HC bench of Justice Mainul Islam Chowdhury and Justice JBM Hasan to include the rule in its tomorrow’s cause-list for fixing a hearing date.
The matter will come up in the cause list tomorrow for fixing a date, Khurshid told The Daily Star after making the prayer.
The lawyer said he placed the prayer before the HC, as the ACC on Monday appointed him for quick disposal of the rule before it.
Khurshid said he did not know whether the government and ACC have made any reply to the HC rule, as he was yet to get all the documents of the case.
The ACC filed the case against Khaleda and 23 others on September 2, 2007 on charges of corruption in awarding the contract for container management at inland container depots in Dhaka and Chittagong to Gatco, causing a loss of over Tk 1,000 crore to the state exchequer. Later, the case was brought under the EPR.
On September 30 the same year, following a writ petition the HC granted bail to Khaleda in the graft case and issued a rule upon the government and ACC to explain why bringing the charges of the case under the EPR should not be declared illegal.
Following another writ petition, the HC on July 15, 2008 stayed the proceedings of the case against Khaleda and also issued another rule upon the government and ACC to explain why the proceedings of the case should not be quashed.
Khaleda was arrested in the case on September 2, 2007 and she was released on bail in September 2008 in four cases filed against her after the arrest.
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