A court in Dhaka has deferred the indictment hearing till Apr 17 against BNP Chief Khaleda Zia and 16 others in GATCO graft case as she wasn’t produced before the court due to illness.
Jail authorities informed the court that Khaleda Zia is ill and therefore they were unable to produce her in the hearing.
Special Judge-3 Abu Syed Diljar Hossain rescheduled the hearing on Apr 17.
Khaleda’s legal counsel Advocate Masud Ahmed Talukder sought a reschedule hearing date while Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) lawyer Mosharraf Hossain appealed to frame charges against 16 others on Monday.
According to the case documents, the former prime minister stands accused of causing a loss of Tk 145.63 million to the state exchequer by awarding a container-handling job at Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Dhaka and at Chittagong Port to GATCO.
Challenging the legality of the case, Khaleda Zia, placed a writ asking for the dismissal of the case, which resulted in the case being held in limbo at the lower court for eight years.
Dismissing the writ, the High Court ordered Khaleda Zia to surrender on Feb 23, 2016. After surrendering on Apr 5 the same year, Khaleda Zia, received bail.
On Sep 2, 2007, ACC’s Deputy Director, Md Golam Shahriar, lodged a case against 13 people with Tejgaon police. Formers ministers, M Saifur Rahman, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Maulana Motiur Rahman and Khaleda Zia’s younger son Arafat Rahman Coco were among the people named in the case.
The case now has 20 accused persons including, MK Anwar, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, AKM Mosharraf Hossain and others. Of the accused, a former minister, MK Anwar has died.