Barapukuria scam: Verdict on Khaleda’s plea any day

The High Court will deliver its verdict any day on a petition filed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia challenging the trial proceedings of Barapukuria coalmine corruption case against her.

The HC bench of Justice Md Nuruzzaman kept the petition curia advisori vult CAV (legal Latin term meaning verdict will be delivered anytime) after concluding argument on her petition.

In the petition, Khaleda said the case was filed illegally against her to politically harass her. The investigation officer earlier submitted a final report to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) exempting her from the case, she said.

Therefore, there is no reason for running the case against her, she added.

Today, the HC bench also extended its previous order that stayed the proceedings of the case until delivery of the verdict.

On August 23, the High Court rejected two petitions of Khaleda Zia seeking the records and final report in Barapukuria corruption case.

Following the rejection order, there is no legal bar for the HC to hear Khaleda’s petition challenging the legality of the case filed by Anti-Corruption Commission in 2008.

The bench of Justice Md Nuruzzaman and Justice Abdur Rob rejected the petitions saying that the papers and documents have already been produced before the HC.

The BNP chief filed the petitions on August 18 in order to know the legal procedure under which the ACC appointed the second investigation officer (IO) to probe the case after the first IO had exempted her from it in June 2008.

The ACC filed the case on February 26, 2008 accusing Khaleda and 15 others of causing a loss of Tk 159 crore to the state exchequer by awarding a contract of operating Barapukuria coalmine to a Chinese company, abusing power.

Later, the HC stayed the case proceedings for several times and issued a rule on the government and the ACC to explain why the case against Khaleda should not be scrapped.