Court orders Khaleda to appear July 24

A Dhaka court yesterday asked BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and 10 others to appear before it on July 24 in connection with the Barapukuria coalmine corruption case.

Judge Hosneara Begum of Special Judge Court-2 passed the order after a public prosecutor submitted a petition to run the trial proceedings.

The High Court on May 25 released its full judgement, directing the trial court to proceed with the corruption case. On that day, the court also vacated its 2008 stay order on the case proceedings.

On September 17 last year, the HC bench of Justice Md Nuruzzaman and Justice Abdur Rob rejected a writ petition filed by the BNP chief in 2008 challenging the legality of trial proceedings in the case filed by Anti Corruption Commission earlier that year.

The ACC accuses the former premier and 15 others of causing a loss of Tk 159 crores to the state exchequer by awarding a contract for operation of Barapukuria coalmine to a Chinese company between June 2003 and June 2005, abusing power.

On October 5 of 2008, the ACC pressed charges against Khaleda and 14 others in the case.

The accused former ministers of BNP are M Saifur Rahman, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, M Shamsul Islam, MK Anwar, Barrister Aminul Haque, Altaf Hossain Choudhury, and AKM Mosharraf Hossain,

Former Jamaat ministers Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid and Motiur Rahman Nizami were also accused.

The other five accused are former acting secretary to the energy and mineral resources ministry Nazrul Islam, former Petrobangla chairman SR Osmani, former Petrobangla director Mainul Ahsan, former managing director of Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Ltd (BCMCL) Sirajul Islam, and Hosaf Group Chairman Moazzem Hossain.

Of the accused, Mannan, Saifur died earlier and Nizami and Mojahid were earlier executed and Sirajul is on the run.