Khaleda's coalmine graft case to continue

Staff Correspondent: The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld a High Court (HC) order that ordered to continue the trial in Barapukuria coalmine graft case against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division of SC headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order after rejecting Khaleda's leave to appeal petition filed against the HC order on Sunday morning.

With the SC order, there is no bar to continue the trial against Khaleda Zia in lower court, according to lawyers.

Senior lawyer A J Mohammad Ali moved for BNP chief Khaleda Zia while Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the state in the court.

The HC on September 17, 2016 rejected the petition filed by Khaleda challenging the legality of trial proceeding of the case against her.

Later on, Khaleda filed a leave to appeal petition with the Supreme Court challenging the HC verdict.

The charges, pressed by Anti-Corruption Commission, accuses the former prime minister and 15 others of causing a loss of Tk 159 crores to the state exchequer by awarding a contract for operation of Barapukuria coalmine to a Chinese company between June 2003 and June 2005, abusing power.



risingbd/Dhaka/May 28, 2017/Mehedi/A K Azad