A Dhaka court has framed charge against BNP vice chairman and former Dhaka City Corporation mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka and 3 others for embezzlement of Tk37 lakh.
Dhaka Divisional Judge M Ataur Rahman framed the charges on Sunday afternoon, rejecting the discharge petitions of the accused in the case.
“The court also fixed February 15, for starting trial by recording depositions of prosecution witnesses in the case," said Md Jahangir Hossain, Public Prosecutor of the Anti-Corruption Commission.
The three other accused are -- Abdul Baten, former president of DCC supermarket in Banani, Mahmudul Hassan Azad, the then general secretary and AHM Tareque, former manager of the market’s parking lot.
The three accused claimed innocence and demanded justice after the court read out the charges to them in the case.
Nur Hossain Khan, deputy director of ACC and also investigation officer (IO) of the case, submitted the charge sheet against the four accused to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court on November 11, 2012.
On February 15, 2012, Mahbubul Alam, assistant director of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case with Shahbagh police station against Khoka and others for misappropriating Tk26 lakh from public fund and causing loss of another Tk11 lakh to it.
According to the case details, BNP leader Khoka in association with the trio pocketed Tk26,14,900, which they had collected in parking charges from the market between 2003 and 2011.
Khoka also caused a loss of Tk11.05 lakh to the public exchequer by cancelling tenders for the parking lot in 2003 and 2005 violating of the DCC rules.
