The High Court is set to give its decision today on whether or not proceedings would continue in the Niko graft trial against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
The bench of Justice Md Nuruzzaman and Justice Jafar Ahmed fixed the date yesterday after hearing a petition filed by Khaleda on April 2 this year challenging the legality of the case proceedings.
On December 9, 2007, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed the graft case with Tejgaon police station, accusing Khaleda and several others of abusing power to award a gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko during her time in office as the prime minister.
The other accused in the case were 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.
The charge sheet in the case was submitted by the ACC in May 2008 against Khaleda and 10 others. Later in July, the High Court stayed the case and directed the ACC and the government to explain why the initiation and proceedings of the case should not be declared illegal.
Recently this year, the ACC again moved to revive the Niko corruption case and a new High Court bench was assigned to dispose of it.
On May 28 this year, the hearing was concluded and the court kept the verdict waiting.
Gatco graft case
The High Court is also set to deliver its verdict any day on whether trial proceedings should continue in the Gatco corruption case against the BNP chairperson.
After concluding hearing arguments, the High Court bench of Justice Md Nuruzzaman and Justice Abdur Rab yesterday kept decisions on two petitions by Khaleda on CAV, meaning the verdicts could be delivered any time.
On September 2, 2007, the ACC filed the case with Tejgaon police station against former premier Khaleda Zia, her son Arafat Rahman Koko and 21 others, accusing them of causing losses worth Tk1,000 crore to the state exchequer by awarding a contract to Global Agro Trade (Pvt) Co Ltd (Gatco) for container management at inland container depots in Dhaka and Chittagong.