A court in Dhaka on Thursday set September 14 to hold a hearing on charge framing in Niko graft case against BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and others.
Judge Sheikh Hafizur Rahman of Dhaka 9th special judge court passed the order today.
“The hearing was scheduled to be held on May 6, but as the normal operations of the courts were suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, the matter was adjourned. The court today set September 14 to hold hearing on the matter,” court clerk Shariful Islam told BSS.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case against five including Begum Khaleda Zia with Tejgaon police station on December 9, 2007, for abusing power in signing a deal with Canadian company Niko for exploring and extracting gas.
The ACC on May 5, 2008, submitted the charge-sheet against 11 people including Khaleda Zia. The ACC accused them of incurring a loss of more than Taka 13 thousand crore of state exchequer by that deal.
The other accused in the case are- Barrister Moudud Ahmed, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, Khandaker Shahidul Islam, CM Eusuf Hossain, Mir Moinul Haque, Md Shafiur Rahman, Gias Uddin Al Mamun, MAH Selim and Kashem Sharif.