Court's decision on charge sheet against Hasina, Rehana today

A Dhaka court will decide today whether the charge sheet of a Tk 2.99 crore extortion case against detained Awami League (AL) chief Sheikh Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana and their cousin Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim will be accepted.
After scrutinising the case docket and other relevant documents, Metropolitan Magistrate KM Ruhul Amin will pass the order on the issue.
On July 24, Officer-in-Charge Obaidul Haq of Gulshan Police Station, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate against Hasina, Rehana and Selim. A total of 24 people were shown as prosecution witnesses in the charge sheet.
Azam J Chowdhury, managing director of Eastcoast Trading Pvt Ltd, filed the case with Gulshan police against Hasina and Sheikh Selim on June 13 for extorting Tk 2.99 crore from him.
Rehana's name was included in the charge sheet as her involvement with the extortion was found during the investigation.
The joint forces arrested the AL chief in connection with the case on July 16 and produced her in a magistrate's court that sent her to a sub-jail.
Two more extortion cases were filed with Tejgaon police against Hasina on April 9 and June 13. Besides, the Anti-Corruption Commission on Sunday filed with the same police a case against Hasina and six others for taking bribe.
Following the cases, Hasina was granted ad interim bail in two cases filed with Tejgaon and Gulshan police stations from the High Court. But the Supreme Court had earlier stayed the HC order following appeals from the government.
UNB adds: The High Court will deliver today its orders deciding the fate of former prime minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina as to whether she should be tried in the warplane purchase scam case.
Pending with the trial court, the much-talked-about MiG-29 case had been stayed for long by High Court orders upon applications filed by Hasina and six other accused for quashing the case related to alleged shady deals for the purchase of the supersonic fighter jets from Russia.
When Hasina was prime minister (1996-2001), eight Russian-made fighter planes of the brand were procured for Bangladesh Air Force.
Immediately after the BNP-led four-party alliance came to power, the now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption filed the MiG-29 case against Sheikh Hasina and the others with Tejgaon Police Station in December 2001.
According to the first information report (FIR), the government incurred a loss of Tk 700 crore on account of the warplane purchase.
Former army chief Lt Gen (retd) Mustafizur Rahman, ex-Air Force chief Air Marshal (retd) Jamal Uddin Ahmed, retired defence secretary Syed Yusuf Hossain, Air Commodore (retd) Mirza Akhtar Maruf, retired defence joint secretary Mohammad Hossain Serniabat and businessman Noor Ali are the other charge-sheeted accused in the case.