Hearing on HC stay order in Niko graft case adjourned
The Supreme Court today adjourned for a week the hearing on a petition filed against the High Court order that stayed the trial proceedings against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in Niko corruption case.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the adjournment order, as the full text of the HC’s stay order was not released and submitted before the apex court, Anti Corruption Commission’s lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star.
Following a petition filed by Khaleda Zia, the HC on March 7 stayed the trial proceeding of the case for six months.
On March 12, the ACC moved a petition before the SC chamber judge against the HC’s stay order.
SC Chamber Judge Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain the same day sent the ACC petition against the March 7 HC order to the SC full bench for holding hearing today (March 16).
The ACC filed the case in December 2007 over charges that Khaleda and several others had abused powers to award a gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko when she was the prime minister between 2001 and 2006.
Former law minister Moudud Ahmed, ex-state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain, former acting energy secretary Khandaker Shahidul Islam, and the then vice president (South Asia) of Niko Resources Bangladesh Ltd Kashem Sharif were also sued in the case.
The BNP chief is now facing 25 criminal cases, including five for corruption. Four of the five corruption cases were filed during the tenure of the last caretaker government.
Trial proceedings in 14 of the 25 cases are now going on at lower courts, while the HC stayed proceedings of one case. The remaining cases are still under investigation, according to court sources.
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