The High Court today rejected two petitions of BNP Chairperson 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, Khurshid Alam Khan, lawyer for the anti-graft body, told The Daily Star.

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 High Court.

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.