The hearing of indictment of BNP chief Khaleda Zia and six others in the Barapukuria coalmine graft case has been deferred to April 26.
The court of Dhaka special judge 2 rescheduled the hearing on Sunday after accepting a petition by Khaleda’s counsels seeking time on health grounds.
The other accused are former BNP ministers Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Barapukuria coalmine’s managing director Md Sirajul Islam Chowdhury, Hossaf group Chairman Moazzam Hossain, former secretary Nazrul Islam and former Petrobangla director Moinul Ahsan.
Of them, Md Sirajul Islam is on the run while the others out on bail.
Earlier this year, the High Court cleared the way for resuming the trial of Khaleda Zia and others in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Khaleda stands accused of causing the state a loss of Tk 159 crore by awarding a contract for operation of Barapukuria coalmine to a Chinese company between June 2003 and June 2005, when she was the prime minister.
In February 2008, the ACC filed the case with Shahbagh police and submitted the charge sheet against 16 people in October the same year.
Names of nine people were dropped from the chargesheet later due to their deaths. Of them, two Jamaat-e-Islami leaders Motiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid have been executed for 1971 war crimes.
The names of former ministers and BNP leaders M Saifur Rahman, Abdul Mannan Bhuyain, MK Anwar, M Shamsul Islam and former state ministers AKM Mosharraf Hossain, Barrister Md Aminul Haque and former Petrobangla chairman AR Usmani have been dropped due to their deaths.
