The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The charge hearing on the Gatco scam case against former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia began yesterday only to be stuck up midway, as defence lawyers opposed the prosecution move saying a quashing petition of the case awaits the High Court's decision.

After hearing arguments by both the defence and the prosecution, the special court of Judge Shahed Noor Uddin adjourned the hearing till July 9.

Prime accused Khaleda Zia and the other accused, including her detained six former

cabinet colleagues, were produced before the court during the hearing. Co-accused detained Arafat Rahman Koko, the youngest son of Khaleda Zia, who was dispensed with personal appearance during trial on health grounds, was represented by his lawyer Tahirul Islam.

As the court rose at 10:15am, ACC public prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajal proposed framing charges against 24 accused in the case.

When the prosecutor narrated the case story, Khaleda's counsel Abdur Rezzaque Khan told the court that a quashing petition against the case appeared on the cause list for hearing at the High Court today. "So, the court's proceedings cannot go further until the matter is resolved at the High Court."

Opposing the defence plea, another ACC prosecutor Sheikh Golam Hafiz submitted that since there was no stay order from the higher court on this matter, there is no legal bar to moving ahead with the trial court proceedings.

Amid strong arguments and counter-arguments, the court kept the hearing as part-heard and fixed July 9 for further hearing.

Meanwhile, the police who were on duty in the courtroom all on a sudden started flushing out journalists one after another as they went there to cover the court proceedings.

The police action perhaps came in a bid to prevent the journalists from having any interaction with the BNP chairperson. "Kick out journalists one after another," an angry police officer was heard shouting to his force in the courtroom.

The journalists covering the case protested it in vain. Later, ACC public prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajal sought apology on behalf of the police for their misbehaviour.

PP Kajal said, "This is an open trial. Anyone, not only the journalists, can witness the proceedings so justice could be ensured."

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station on September 2 last year against Khaleda and others for graft in awarding Gatco the contract for container handling at depots in Dhaka and Chittagong.

The following day, the joint forces arrested the mother and son at their Dhaka Cantonment residence.

On May 13, the ACC submitted the charge sheet to the CMM court against 24 people.

The charge-sheeted accused include top BNP leaders former finance minister M Saifur Rahman, former LGRD minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, former health minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, former land minister M Shamsul Islam, former agriculture minister MK Anwar, former commerce minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, and former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain, and Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer and former industries minister Motiur Rahman Nizami.

Of those not detained yet are Saifur Rahman and Amir Khasru, now staying abroad.

The accused are charged with causing a loss of over Tk 14 crore to the public exchequre by striking the container handling deal with Gatco despite its lack of experience and skills.

The charges also include misuse of power and collusion among the accused in violation of the tender conditions.

The ACC in its investigation found Koko and Simon, son of late shipping minister Akbar Hossain, to have received Tk 2.19 crore from Gatco to help it win the contract.

Khaleda and Koko were charged with influencing the tender process while officials in Chittagong Port Authority with the help of Gatco won the deal ignoring the tender evaluation committee's report that described the firm as unfit one.