Staff Correspondent
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s petition for quashing the Niko graft case was on Sunday dropped from the list of cases for hearing in the High Court. The petition was on the list since August 2008.
The High Court bench of Justice Sheikh Rezowan Ali and Justice Md Rais Uddin de-listed the petition, after hearing attorney general Mahbubey Alam, who pleaded that the case should be dropped as his office was not prepared for hearing in the case.
The same bench, however, refused to entertain a similar prayer made by the chief law officer of the state for de-listing from hearing another petition for quashing the barge-mounted power plant graft case against Hasina. The court, however, adjourned the hearing in the case till April 19.
As the hearing in the petition filed by Hasina seeking the Niko graft case to be quashed is yet to start, it may be dropped from the cause list, the court said.
The court observed that the petition filed by Hasina for quashing the barge-mounted power plant graft case could not be dropped from the list as the hearing in the petition had already started.
‘As the new attorney general, I have no preparation for the hearing in the cases. It is better to drop the cases from the list,’ Mahbub argued.
The High Court on January 7 deferred to February 15 the hearing in the petitions filed by Hasina seeking the two graft cases to be quashed.
The two are among the 16 criminal cases filed during the interim government and the previous BNP-led alliance government, which were pending when she contested the parliamentary polls.
The Anti-Corruption Commission on September 2, 2007 sued Hasina and seven others on charge of taking Tk 3 crore in bribes in the name of the Bangabandhu Memorial Trust in exchange for contracts to set up three barge-mounted power plants.
The commission on December 9, 2007 lodged another case against Hasina and eight others for causing losses of Tk 13,600 crore to the state by awarding Canadian company Niko Resources three gas fields after declaring them abandoned.
After hearing two petitions filed by Hasina, the High Court on July 7, 2008 halted the trial of the two cases asking the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission to explain why the cases should not be quashed.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
