The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The High Court yesterday asked former finance minister Saifur Rahman, charge-sheeted along with ex-premier Khaleda Zia in the Barapukuria coalmine graft case, to surrender to and seek bail from the trial court within four weeks.

Passing the order, an HC division bench comprising Justice AKM Fazlur Rahman and Justice Sheikh Abdul Awal directed the law to "refrain from arresting or harassing" him in the meantime.

The HC orders came following a petition filed by the BNP stalwart apprehending arrest and sought bail on surrender, as the trial court Monday issued arrest warrants against him and eight other charge-sheeted accused in the graft case.

Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge M Azizul Huq on Monday, a day after accepting the charge-sheet in the case submitted by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), passed the orders.

The eight other accused carrying arrest warrants overhead did not turn up at the High Court yesterday.

The trial court has also directed the principal accused, BNP chairperson and ex-PM Khaleda Zia, Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer and ex-minister Motiur Rahman Nizami, former BNP ministers Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, M Shamsul Islam and MK Anwar, now on bail in the case, to appear before it on October 12.

On Sunday, ACC deputy director Abul Kashem Fakir, also the investigation officer, submitted the charge-sheet in the high-profile case to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court here against the 16 persons in the case. The charge-sheet shows 43 people as prosecution witnesses.

On February 26, the ACC filed the case with Shahbagh police station in the capital on charge of kickbacks amounting to about Tk 159 crore on the Barapukuria Coalmine deal awarded to the highest bidder instead of the lowest.

In the charge sheet the anti-graft watchdog body accused the top politicians and bureaucrats of misappropriating about Tk 159 crore through inflicting loss on country's exchequer by awarding the contract of production, management and maintenance of the Barapukuria Coalmine to the highest bidder.

Former Additional Attorney-General Abdur Rezzaque Khan appeared for Saifur.