Court asks for HC order on Khaleda's plea

A Dhaka court yesterday asked the BNP chief and nine others to submit by April 13 a High Court order on writ petitions submitted for quashing proceedings of Barapukuria coalmine corruption case.

After submission of the HC order, the court will decide whether Khaleda Zia and others will have to appear before it.

The court also asked the authorities concerned to produce three accused, now in jail custody, before the court on the same date.   

The three are BNP standing committee member Khondaker Mosharraf Hossain and Jamaat leaders Motiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed.

Judge Hosne Ara Begum of the Special Judge's Court-2 passed the order after counsels for Khaleda and some of the accused informed her that the HC on different dates stayed the proceedings of the case for different terms.

Moreover, the HC on Sunday fixed April 5 for passing an order on a petition filed by the BNP chief for quashing the case proceedings.

The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case on February 26, 2008, accusing Khaleda and 15 others of causing a loss of Tk 159 crore to the state exchequer by awarding a contract for the operation of Barapukuria coalmine to a Chinese company abusing power.

On October 5, 2008, the ACC pressed charges against Khaleda and 15 others.

Of the accused, former finance minister M Saifur Rahman, former BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and SR Osmani have already died. Earlier, their names were dropped from the case proceedings.