Khaleda charged with Niko graft

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The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday pressed charges against detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia and 10 others for graft in awarding a gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko.

Former law minister Moudud Ahmed and state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain are among the other charge-sheeted accused.

The anti-graft body is likely to submit charge sheet today against Sheikh Hasina, another detained former prime minister, and six others in a case filed on similar charges.

This is the first time charges were pressed against Khaleda since her arrest on September 3 last year.

ACC Assistant Director SM Sahidur Rahman, also the investigation officer (IO), submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s (CMM) Court, showing 68 people as prosecution witnesses.

Kamal Uddin Siddique, former principal secretary to prime minister, Khandaker Shahidul Islam, former acting energy secretary, CM Yousuf Hossain, former senior assistant secretary of Energy and Mineral Resources Department, Meer Moynul Haque, former senior general manager of Bapex, Shafiur Rahman, former secretary of Bapex, Giasuddin Al Mamun, managing director of One Group, Selim Bhuiyan, chairman and managing director of International Travel Corporation, and Kashem Sharif, vice-president (South Asia) of Niko Resources Bangladesh Ltd, are the others arraigned.

Though arrested in connection with other cases, Khaleda, Moudud, Mosharraf, Shahidul, Selim and Mamun were later shown arrested in the Niko graft case.

The IO appealed the court to issue warrants for arrest of Kamal Uddin Siddique, Yusuf, Moynul, Shafiur Rahman and Kashem, and order attachment of their properties for their absconding since the case was filed.

The charges were pressed under section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 109 (abetment) of the penal code and 5(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act 1947.

The IO said the 11 should be brought to trial as the charges against them have been proved primarily.

According to the charge sheet, the accused in collaboration with each other struck an anti-state “joint venture agreement” through abuse of power for financial gains, causing a loss of Tk 13,777 crore to the state coffers.

In a confessional statement to a magistrate, Selim said all dealings between the government and the Canadian company in this regard were made through him.

The IO seized 14 pieces of evidence from different places in connection with the case.

On December 9 last year, ACC Assistant Director Mahbubul Alam filed the case against Khaleda, Moudud, Mosharraf, Shahidul and Kashem with Tejgaon Police Station. Six others were included in the charge sheet after a probe found their involvement.

Approved by the ACC on April 30, the charge sheet said Joint Secretary and Petrobangla Director (Finance) Yousuf Hossain was charged for distorting documents on the Niko deal, concealing information to get the deal approved and trying to influence the department officials.

Shafiur and Moynul were formally accused of preparing the framework of understanding (FoU) in a way that helped Niko win the deal.

Giasuddin Mamun and Selim were included in the charge sheet for bribery. Selim received Tk 3 crore from Kashem Sharif and gave Tk 1.80 crore from it to Mamun, a controversial businessman and friend of Tarique Zia.

On the other hand, Kamal Uddin was charged for the role he had played all along the process of awarding the deal to Niko.

The charge sheet will be sent to the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court, Dhaka today for its cognisance. The court will order the next steps to be taken against the accused.

THE DEAL

Since being disqualified by the government in the second-round block bidding for oil and gas exploration in 1997, Niko had been relentless in efforts to enter the country’s energy scene through the backdoor.

Though the then energy secretary Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury promoted a joint venture deal between the Canadian company and Bapex, Awami League government could not okay the deal for absence of necessary legal framework.

Soon after the BNP-led alliance government came to power, Niko began pushing for the deal to be signed, riding on a number of BNP bigwigs and its legal adviser Moudud Ahmed, then the law minister.

The controversial Niko-Bapex deal was signed in 2003 despite objections from Petrobangla experts who repeatedly said it would mean compromising national interest.

In this secretly-inked deal, Niko was awarded gas exploration and extraction work at an unused gas field shown as a marginal or used gas field.

Any oil company seeking exploration rights to an unused field must be qualified and win it through a competitive bidding.

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