Bangladesh News

The High Court (HC) yesterday granted three months’ ad interim bail to detained BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in Gatco and Niko graft cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

With yesterday’s, the former prime minister has obtained bail in all four cases against her.

It means now there is no legal bar to her release, said Khaleda’s counsels.

“We hope she will be freed within 24 hours,” said her lawyer Rafiqul Islam Mia. “The court orders prove she is innocent. As she wanted from the outset, she is going to be released through a legal process.”

A vacation bench of the HC comprised of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Mamnoon Rahman came up with the bail orders.

It also asked the ACC and the government to explain why the petitioner should not be granted regular bail in the cases.

Meanwhile, the anti-graft body yesterday filed two petitions with the Supreme Court (SC) for stay on the HC orders granting the BNP chief bail in Zia Orphanage Trust and Barapukuria coalmine cases on August 26 and 28.

Additional Attorney General (AAG) Mansur Habib said the ACC would appeal against the last two bail orders too.

Referring to securing bail in all four cases, Khaleda’s counsel Khandker Mahbubuddin Ahmed said it is a victory in their long legal battle.

Rafique-ul Huq, another counsel for the petitioner, said the government has in fact violated the human rights and rule of law by arresting former prime ministers Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina.

“Hasina is the daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Khaleda is the widow of Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman.

“I’ve been fighting the legal battles on behalf of them to establish the rule of law. Awami League or BNP should not be brought here to confuse the issue,” he said.

Asked about the comment of Commerce Adviser Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman that the government would not oppose if Khaleda files bail petitions, Huq said the BNP chairperson was granted bail on legal points amid strong opposition of the ACC counsels.

“An adviser should not have made this sort of comments about court proceedings,” he added.

Earlier in the day, during hearing on the bail petitions, Huq told the court that the cases were filed to have her disqualified from the next general election.

He said, “The first information report (FIR) of the Gatco case says the accused had caused a Tk 1,000 crore loss to the state coffers, but the charge sheet says the amount was Tk 14 crore.”

The lawyer contended that the Global Agro Trade (Pvt) Co Ltd (Gatco) won the container handling contract for Dhaka and Chittagong inland depots as the lowest bidder, and there was no graft or irregularity involved.

Huq said Saadat Hussain, the then cabinet secretary and now chairman of Bangladesh Public Service Commission (PSC), headed the technical committee regarding the contract, and so he should have been made the principal accused.

“No charge has been brought against Saadat Hussain. But former ministers have been made accused so they could be harassed politically. Most of the accused including M Saifur Rahman, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, M Shamsul Islam and MK Anwar have been granted bail in this case,” he said.

Khandker Mahbubuddin Ahmed and Rafiqul Islam Mia petitioned the court to grant Khaleda bail in Niko graft case on the same grounds that Huq sought bail for her in the Gatco case.

“The government awarded the gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko in full compliance with the rules of business,” Mia told the court.

In opposition to the bail prayers, ACC counsel Abdul Aziz Khan argued that the HC cannot allow an accused bail in a case filed under the emergency power rules.

He also lamented that the HC has been granting bails to the accused at will. At this point, the court asked the bench officers to write down an order against Aziz.

However, the ACC counsel was quick to apologise to the court, and no contempt rule was issued against him.

CASES

On September 2 last year, the ACC filed the first case against Khaleda on charges of graft in awarding Gatco a container management contract. The following day she was arrested at her cantonment residence.

Then on December 9 last year, it filed the Niko case against her and four others. The charge is abuse of power in awarding a gas exploration and extraction deal to Niko.

On May 5, the anti-graft body pressed charges in this case against 11 people. Besides Khaleda, former law minister Moudud Ahmed and former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain are among the charge-sheeted accused.

The HC in July this year stayed the proceedings of Gatco and Niko cases.

It also ordered the government and the ACC to explain why the case proceedings should not be quashed.

The ACC filed the Barapukuria coalmine case against Khaleda and 15 others on February 26. The other accused include 10 former ministers from BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami.

In the case, the 16 are charged with causing a loss of over Tk 158.71 crore to the public exchequer by awarding a Chinese company a production, management and maintenance contract through abuse of power.

The accused former ministers from BNP are M Saifur Rahman, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, M Shamsul Islam, MK Anwar, Aminul Haque, Altaf Hossain Choudhury and AKM Mosharraf Hossain, and from Jamaat are Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid and Motiur Rahman Nizami.

On July 3, the ACC filed another case against Khaleda, her elder son Tarique Rahman and five others on charges of embezzling over Tk 2.10 crore meant for Zia Orphanage Trust.

All four cases that were later brought under the emergency rules remain pending with the special courts set up to try high-profile corruption cases.