A Dhaka court yesterday withdrew a warrant of arrest it issued against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia half an hour after cancelling her bail in connection with the Niko graft case.
The order came after defence counsel Abdur Rezak Khan had submitted a petition seeking time for his client’s non-appearance before the court due to her illness and security grounds.
With this, Khaleda skipped the court proceedings for five consecutive dates. She got bail in the case on November 30 last year.
In their petition, Rezak Khan said his client had earlier filed a leave-to-appeal petition with the Supreme Court against the High Court order that directed the trial court to run the trial. The SC on Sunday fixed July 31 to hear the issue. So, the hearing on charge framing should be postponed, the lawyer argued.
Anti-Corruption Commission Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol opposed the petition saying there was no stay on holding trial of the case.
Judge Md Aminul Islam of the Special Judge’s Court-9 rejected the time petition cancelling Khaleda’s bail and issued an arrest warrant against her. The judge asked the defence to start hearing on charge framing.
At this stage, the defence submitted another petition for reconsidering their petition which was also rejected. The defence also submitted a no-confidence petition saying they would not get justice from the court.
After repeated petitions, the court finally withdrew its earlier order for arrest of Khaleda and fixed August 10 for the next hearing.
Of the accused in the case, former law minister Moudud Ahmed, former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain and four others were present before the court, while Kashem Sharif, vice-president (South Asia) of Niko Resources Bangladesh Ltd, and two others have been absconding. Another accused Shafiur Rahman was also absent.
The ACC filed the case with Tejgaon police in December 2007 accusing Khaleda and several others of abusing power to award a gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko when she was the prime minister in 2001-06.
Source: The Daily Star
