A Dhaka court has fixed December 3 for holding a hearing on charge framing in the Barapukuria Coal Mine graft case against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and nine others.
Judge of the Special Judge's Court-2 of Dhaka Md Akteruzzaman fixed the date on Tuesday.
Tuesday was fixed for the indictment hearing, but as one of the accused in the case is in Australia, the court adjourned the hearing.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on February 26, 2008, filed the graft case against Khaleda Zia and 15 others with the Shahbagh police station.
Deputy Director of the ACC Md Abul Kashem Fokir filed a charge sheet in the case on October 5, 2008.
They were accused of causing a loss of around Tk159 crore to the state exchequer by awarding a contract for the operation of the Barapukuria Coal Mine to a Chinese company through abuse of power.
Of the initial 16 accused, convicted war criminals Nizami and Mojaheed have been hanged and four others have died of natural causes and their names are expected to be dropped from the case during the framing of the charges.
Now the 10 accused are – Begum Khaleda Zia, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Dr Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, MK Anwar, M Shamsul Islam, Md Sirajul Islam Chowdhury, Moajjem Hossain, Nazrul Islam, Moinul Ahsan and AKM Mosharraf Hossain.