Hasina refuses to answer queries

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Detained Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina yesterday declined to answer investigators’ queries about the power-plant graft case as the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) did not put out a prior notice.

“As she [Hasina] did not get any prior notice about the quizzing, she did not say anything significant,” Hasina’s counsel Advocate Tawfique Newaz told reporters after the query at the special jail on the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises.

Emerging from the jail around 1:45pm, Newaz told reporters Hasina was in the dark as to what kind of allegations were brought against her. He said the AL chief could not give any answer until the ACC informed her about the allegations.

When the investigators wanted to know about the graft charge against her, she categorically denied taking any bribe from anyone and said, “I never committed corruption.

“Rather I did a number of development work during the tenure of Awami League government. There are several renowned economists in the country and they could review my claims on development,” Hasina was quoted by Newaz as saying.

She also said corruption and development could not go together. She told the investigators she governed during her five-year-long tenure on the basis of principles.

Over her denial, Hasina told the investigators she will first get the notice about the allegations. Then she will review the documents of the first information report (FIR) and consult her lawyers before answering them.

“To review all these I need at least two weeks, as nothing of these can be answered depending on memory,” Hasina told the four-member investigators of the taskforce comprising ACC official, army personnel and police from Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The counsel said the investigating team could not confirm whether they would send Hasina any notice before such questioning or not.

The investigators including ACC Deputy Director Morshed Alam and taskforce official Major Humayun however stayed for about one and a half hours at the jail where the AL chief has been detained since July 16.

The ACC filed the case against her with Tejgaon Police Station on September 2. It said Hasina and six others had taken Tk 3 crore as “donation” for the Bangabandhu Memorial Trust to approve three barge-mounted power plants depriving the lowest bidder.

Hasina yesterday filed a writ petition with the High Court challenging the validity of the case under the emergency powers rules.

On the petition, Newaz said the hearing of the case is on and Hasina is waiting to get “positive news like order of stay and bail”.

Before the investigators’ arrival, Hasina’s lawyers Khandakar Moniruzzaman and Barrister Fazle Noor Taposh met her and informed her about developments of different cases.

Taposh told The Daily Star the ACC did not notice the AL chief about the quizzing according to law.

He said they informed the ACC in the morning that they did not get any prior notice. “We have also asked them [ACC] to comply with rules and laws. Otherwise, it will be violation of laws.”

He said the AL chief has again expressed her doubts that she would be “made” convicted by any means. She also observed that she has been accused in different cases as part of evil designs against her, the lawyer said.

She also viewed that everything has been done in violation of laws. Laws are not followed in bringing charges against her. Hasina, eldest daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, however expressed the hope that she would come out of prison through legal procedures.

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