Bangladesh News

The hearing on charge framing against Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina and six others in the barge-mounted power plant graft case began yesterday.

After hearing the prosecution, Special Court-1 adjourned the proceedings till March 13 and also fixed the day for the defence submission.

It was the seventh sitting since February 3 as the hearing was adjourned on previous six occasions.

Hasina, the now detained former prime minister, complained she was taken to the court despite her worsening health.

She was brought to the makeshift court at the MP Hostel on Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises at around 10:25am. On arrival, she told her lawyers, “By not allowing my relatives and lawyers to be present, the court has in fact proved it is a trial in camera.”

Later, standing in the dock, she said, “My fears that I won’t get justice here have been confirmed since my lawyers and relatives have been kept out of the courtroom.”

The defence lawyers told the court that police prevented their colleagues as well as the former prime minister’s relatives from attending the day’s proceedings. In reply, Judge Firoz Alam said there is no bar for a defendant’s relatives to be around during the trial unless there is a concern for security.

After the day’s proceedings, seven or eight of her relatives were allowed to talk with her.

The defence once again prayed for the hearing to be adjourned yesterday for what they said was their client’s deteriorating health. Besides, they said, they could not yet complete examining the evidence.

The judge said last time the hearing was deferred on condition that it would not be repeated since there is a deadline to complete the trial.

Regarding her health, the court said if she was not feeling well she might leave, but the hearing must begin and go on.

The prosecution said the proceedings must begin as they have enough evidence in hand to prove the charges.

In their submissions, they said Hasina awarded Wartsila Power Development Ltd the contract for setting up a 100-MW barge-mounted power plant in Khulna for a bribe of Tk 3 crore. In doing so, she and the other accused deprived the lowest bidder New England Power Company (NEPC).

According to the prosecution, her co-accused former energy secretary Dr Toufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury and the then Power Development Board chairman Nur Uddin Mahmud Kamal brokered the deal with Wartsila.

The kickbacks were paid between October 24, 1996 and November 24, 1997 through eight pay orders of American Express, Standard Chartered, Arab-Bangladesh, and ANZ Grindlays banks.

On October 8, 1997, Hasina, then the prime minister, bought a two-storey building on a 19-katha land on Dhanmondi Road No. 32 in the name of Bangabandhu Memorial Trust (BMT).

Summit Group and United Group–the local partners of Wartsila, paid the land owner Tk 1.45 crore on October 7 and Tk 55 lakh the following day, the prosecution said.

Hasina approved the project summary on October 11.

A power purchase and implementation agreement was signed between Khulna Power Company Limited (KPCL) and PDB on October 16 the same year, the prosecution said.

Wartsila had the United Group and Summit Group in forming the KPCL.

The owner of the land was paid another Tk 1 crore on November 24.

THE CASE
ACC Deputy Director Sabbir Hasan lodged the case with Tejgaon Police Station on September 2 last year, accusing Hasina and six others of abusing power to help a foreign company and its local partners win the deal for setting up a barge-mounted power plant.

Former energy secretary Dr Toufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, former PDB chairman Noor Uddin Mahmud Kamal, Managing Director of Summit Industries and Mercantile Corporation Private Ltd Aziz Khan, its Director Farid Khan, United Group Chairman Hasan Mahmud Raja, and its Director Abul Kalam Azad are the other accused.

Morshed Alam, deputy director of the ACC, submitted charge sheet on January 10, including BMT Curator Siddiqur Rahman as another accused.