A Dhaka court framed charges against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and 10 others in the much-discussed Niko graft case on Sunday.
Judge Sheikh Hafizur Rahman framed the charges against the accused at a temporary courtroom of Dhaka Special Judge's Court-9 at Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj, rejecting the defence counsels' time petitions.
The others indicated accused in the case are AKM Mosharraf Hossain, former state minister for energy, Kamal Uddin Siddique, former principal secretary to the prime minister, Khandaker Shahidul Islam, former acting energy secretary, CM Yousuf Hossain, former senior assistant secretary of energy and mineral resources department, Meer Moynul Haque, former senior general manager of Bapex, Shafiur Rahman, former secretary of Bapex, Giasuddin Al Mamun, managing director of One Group, Selim Bhuiyan, chairman and managing director of International Travel Corporation, and Kashem Sharif, vice president (South Asia) of Niko Resources Bangladesh Ltd.
The court also deferred the charge framing hearing in the Barapukuria coal mine graft case against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia for the 48th time.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case against five including Khaleda Zia at Tejgaon police station on December 9, 2007 for abusing power in signing a deal with Canadian company Niko for exploring and extracting gas.
The ACC on May 5, 2008 pressed charges against 11 people including Khaleda Zia accusing them of causing a loss of more than Tk13,000 crore to the state exchequer through that deal.
Three of them – Barrister Moudud Ahmed, who was in the BNP standing committee, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, former state minister for energy, and Md Shafiru Rahman, for secretary of the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (Bapex) – died before the trial could start and the charges against them were dropped.
Following an ACC move, the High Court cleared the way for the trial on June 18, 2016.