Niko graft case: HC stays trial proceedings against Moudud for 8 weeks

The High Court today stayed the trial proceedings against BNP leader Moudud Ahmed in Niko corruption case for eight weeks.

The HC bench of Justice Sheikh Abdul Awal and Justice Shahidul Karim passed the order after hearing a petition filed by Moudud seeking a stay on the proceedings against him in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2007.

ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star that the commission will move an appeal before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court challenging the HC order of stay.

The ACC filed the Niko corruption case in December 2007 over charges that BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and several others had abused powers to award a gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko when she was prime minister between 2001 and 2006.

Former Law Minister Moudud Ahmed, former State Minister for Energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain, former Acting Energy Secretary Khandaker Shahidul Islam and Kashem Sharif, vice-president (South Asia) of Niko Resources Bangladesh Ltd, were also sued in the case.

Earlier this year, Moudud Ahmed filed two applications with the trial court concerned seeking some documents of the case and stay on the trial proceedings of the case against him as an arbitration regarding the dispute over dealing with Niko is going on abroad, but the lower court rejected his applications.

Moudud then filed a criminal revision petition with the HC challenging the lower court’s rejection orders.

On November 24, the apex court upheld an HC verdict that had cleared the way for a lower court to continue the trial proceedings against the BNP chief in Niko corruption case.