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Download PDF The High Court (HC) yesterday adjourned till August 21 hearing of three appeals by detained former prime minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina for quashing three graft cases against her in connection with the purchase of a frigate and eight MiG-29 fighter aircraft, and setting up Meghnaghat power plant.
All the three appeals were on the case list for hearing by an HC bench yesterday.
The court first took up for hearing Hasina’s appeal for quashing the case concerning MiG-29 purchase.
In a packed courtroom, hearing started in the morning and continued till lunch break.
At this stage, Hasina’s counsels sought more time to prepare for the cases. And the court adjourned hearing of all the three appeals till August 21.
Later, one of Hasina’s counsels Barrister Shafique Ahmed told reporters that they (counsels) read out the first information report (FIR) and charge sheet of the case regarding MiG-29s, and submitted those along other relevant papers to the court.
Shafique said they pointed out to the court that some essential ingredients of law are absent in the FIR and charge sheet of the case.
They also told the court that nothing was wrong in the process of purchasing MiG-29s and everything including tender floating was done properly.
There was also a scrutiny committee for the task of purchase and at last a summarised report was sent to Hasina as she was the then prime minister. She did not do anything with ill motive, the counsels claimed to the court.
An official of the now defunct Bureau of Anti-corruption (Bac), Abdullah Al Zahid, filed a case on December 11, 2001 with Tejgaon Police Station accusing five including Hasina of corruption in purchasing eight MiG-29s.
In the FIR, the complainant said that during her tenure as prime minister, eight MiG-29s were purchased causing a loss of about Tk 700 crore to the state.
The charge sheet in the case accusing seven persons was submitted on January 29, 2003. The HC stayed proceedings of the case after Hasina appealed for quashing the case the same year.
The long pending appeal from Hasina finally came up for hearing following the government’s sudden move for its quick disposal.
Hasina’s another counsel Mahbubey Alam told reporters that he had submitted an application to the court for asking the authorities concerned to provide them with some important documents needed for dealing with the case.
He also said that during Hasina’s tenure as PM, the then AL government had initially paid Tk 99 crore for purchasing MiG-29s and the rest was supposed to be paid later in instalments.
But the BNP-led alliance after assuming power in 2001 did not pay the money.
Following this, the Russian government filed an arbitration case. The alliance government sent a lawyer to deal with the case. On the lawyer’s opinion, the coalition government negotiated the matter with the Russian authorities and paid due money for the purchase of MiG-29s.
The BNP-led coalition government then contended that the MiG-29s were not of required quality, said Mahbubey Alam. “Now we have asked for documents of the arbitration.”
Explaining the necessity of many documents and papers to deal with the case, he said more time is needed to prepare for the case.
Hearing of all the three appeals by Hasina will be held separately, said her counsels.
Another the then Bac official, Joynul Abedin, filed a case with Tejgaon Police Station on August 7, 2002 accusing five including Hasina of graft in purchasing a frigate.
The complainant said the accused caused a loss of Tk 447 crore to the state in the purchase.
On December 11, 2001, Gulam Mostafa, the then Bac director, filed a case with Ramna Police Station accusing former state minister for power Rafiqul Islam of misappropriating Tk 17.89 crore in the process of setting up Meghnaghat power plant. Hasina and three others were implicated in the in the charge sheet of the case.
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