Staff Reporter
In a surprise move, business tycoon Azam Jahangir Chowdhury yesterday prayed for withdrawing his Tk 3 crore extortion case against Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina and said he had not directly sued anyone.
The Prime Bank chairman and top businessman, Azam, said to reporters at his Gulshan office, “I did not directly file any case. Neither did I name anyone. There was a misunderstanding, which will be over when the case is withdrawn.”
Azam, managing director of the East Coast Trading Ltd, applied to the Home Adviser yesterday to withdraw the case in court through an executive order. He said it was filed on a “misunderstanding” and was “unexpected and undesired” on his part.
“I was compelled to file the case on June 13 in 2007 due to changed circumstances,” Azam J Chowdhury told journalists at a press briefing at his Gulshan office after submitting the application.
Explaining reasons for withdrawal of his case against Hasina, Azam said he took the decision to protect the democratic and basic rights of a person.
He said he filed the case, which also involved Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, due to “a misunderstanding at an adverse environment” persisting at that time. “It was an unexpected incident,” Azam added.
In the FIR, Azam J Chowdhury mentioned that Selim took the money from him in exchange for awarding him the contract of Siddhirganj Power Plant in Narayanganj.
On July 24 in 2007 Gulshan police submitted a charge sheet before the court indicting Hasina along with her sister Sheikh Rehana and Sheikh Selim.
Hasina was held on July 16 in 2007, and shown arrest in the case and Selim was arrested in the same case few days later. Sheikh Rehana who lives in the UK was shown as fugitive in the case.
He said he had filed a case only against Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, her cousin, for extorting money from him in return for a promised deal on Siddhirganj power plant in Narayanganj.
On January 24 this year, he claimed in a press conference that he had not accused the former prime minister in the case involving charges of extortion and his allegation was only against Hasina’s cousin Selim.
“Sheikh Hasina is the daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and I cannot even think of suing her,” he had said.
On January 30, he said that he was acquainted only with Sheikh Selim as an accused in the case. “I do not know anyone else,” said the businessman.
Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana and their cousin Selim, a former health minister, have all been charged in the case.
Azam has said he filed the case only against Selim, while the investigating officer of the case implicated Hasina and Rehana in it later.
Hasina was arrested and detained on July 16 in 2007, and subsequently shown arrested in the case. Selim was arrested before the former prime minister.
A charge sheet, produced before the court on July 24 in 2007, named Rehana as co-accused. Residing in the UK, she was shown as fugitive in the case.
The High Court later halted trial proceedings on a writ petition filed by the AL president, challenging the legality of the case and its trial. The final verdict is still pending. Awami League spokesman Syed Ashraful Islam recently said the cases against Hasina had been filed by using coercion.
Courtesy: nation.ittefaq.com
