Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha has assigned a new High Court bench to dispose the Niko, Gatco and Barapukuria coal mine graft cases filed against BNP chief Khaleda Zia.
Responding to a plea of another HC bench, the CJ Tuesday ordered the bench of Justice Md Nuruzzaman and Justice Zafar Ahmed to deal with the petitions filed in the corruption cases.
Earlier on April 5, the HC bench of Justice Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice JBM Hassan sent the documents of these cases to the chief justice for the next order on the trial procedures of the cases.
The HC justices made the move after the counsel of Khaleda Zia was not punctual to arrive before the bench while BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia herself on March 11 had expressed no confidence in the bench, which was set to deliver verdict yesterday on her two petitions challenging the proceedings in Barapukuria coal mine graft case.
The bench also requested the chief justice to assign another bench to dispose the cases.
Following Khaleda’s petition in 2008, the High Court stayed the proceedings of Barapukuria, Niko and Gatco graft cases and asked the government why the case proceedings would not be quashed.
On March 5 this year, Khaleda’s petition came up for hearing before the High Court bench and the court after hearing the Anti-Corruption Commission lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan set March 15 for delivering the verdict.
The date for the verdict was later moved to April 5.
