Staff Correspondent
The Unique Group chairman, Noor Ali, on Wednesday claimed that he did not file complaint against the former prime minister and Awami League president Shiekh Hasina, but a high-ambitious vested quarter lodged it, aiming to make his relation with the AL chief sour.
‘I did not file the case against Sheikh Hasina, rather a high-ambitious vested quarter filed the complaint and they tried to spoil my good relation with Sheikh Hasina,’ said Noor Ali at a business roundtable at the Hotel Westin in Dhaka.
Noor Ali, who was nominated by AL for the suspended January 22, 2007 national election, filed the case on June 13, 2007 with Tejgaon police, accusing Sheikh Hasina, her cousin Sheikh Helal and his wife Rupa Chowdhury, of extorting Tk 5 crore in 1997 for gaining contracts of installing three power plants.
‘The case was filed by those and they forcibly took my signature on the complaint papers,’ he said, refusing to disclose their names at this moment.
When asked whether those people were belonging to the Army, Noor Ali said, ‘I would not disclose the names right at this moment, but a small group within the interim government was involved in the whole process.’
The military-controlled interim government on July 16, 2007 placed the Noor Ali’s case under the Emergency Power Rules and a magistrate court on July 29 passed an order for showing Sheikh Hasina arrested in the case while she was in jail custody after her arrest on July 16, 2007 in another extortion case filed by another businessman Azam J Chowdhury.
The High Court on September 29 and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on October 30 rejected Sheikh Hasina’s prayer for bail in the case, the officer-in-charge of Tejgaon police station, Lutfor Rahman Khan, who was also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the final report to the chief metropolitan magistrate court in Dhaka on November 5 clearing her and all other accused of the charge.
Earlier in the 2001 national polls, Noor Ali got AL ticket and was defeated by his rival contestant from BNP.
Azam J Chowdhury, who earlier withdrew another case against Sheikh Hasina, also attended the business roundtable.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
