Noor Ali sorry for 'unintended' act

Unique Group Managing Director Noor Ali Wednesday withdrew the Tk 5-crore extortion case he filed against Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina and begged pardon for his "unintended" act yesterday.
"If you were hurt by my action, I am very sorry for that and I beg your mercy," he said yesterday in an AL election rally for Dhaka-1 constituency at Nawabganj Pilot High School ground where Hasina was the chief speaker.
With this, the complainants of three extortion cases filed against Hasina withdrew their cases this month. All the cases were filed during the tenure of this caretaker government.
Noor Ali, who the AL nominated in the stalled January 22, 2007 national elections, earlier announced his willingness to withdraw the case at a roundtable in Hotel Westin in Dhaka.
He claimed he did not file the case against Hasina and a highly-ambitious vested quarter lodged the case in his name aiming to make his relation with the AL chief sour.
He had filed the case accusing Hasina, her cousin Sheikh Helal and his wife Rupa Chowdhury, of extorting the money in 1997 in exchange for contracts for installing three power plants.
On December 24, Westmont Power Company (Bangladesh) Ltd Chairman Tajul Islam Farook withdrew his case against Hasina filed with Tejgaon Police Station.
Farook, who had filed the Tk 3-crore extortion case on April 9 last year, during a press conference in his Baridhara office claimed, "I have withdrawn the case on my own will."
In the case, he had accused Hasina of forcing him to pay her the money when she was in power in 1998.
Earlier this month, Azam J Chowdhury during a press briefing at his Gulshan office, expressed his wish to discontinue the extortion case he filed against Hasina and her cousin Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim.
He had submitted an application to the home ministry seeking executive orders for withdrawal of the case through the court concerned.