DHAKA: A Dhaka court on Tuesday issued arrest warrant against five BNP leaders, including BNP standing committee member and also former housing and public works minister Mirza Abbas, on charge of irregularities in plot allocation among journalists.

Dhaka Senior Special Judge's Court acting judge Imrul Kayes passed the order in absence of the accused.

The other accused are former state minister for housing and public works and BNP leader Alamgir Kabir, the ministry’s former joint secretary Bijon Kanti Sarker, office assistant of National Housing Authority (NHA) Matiar Rahman and its cashier Mansur Alam.
 
The court also directed the law enforcers to submit a report regarding the arrest warrant on March 25.

Earlier on February 16, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) submitted a charge-sheet against the BNP leaders in a graft case over allocation of land to journalists.

On March 6, 2014, ACC’s then deputy director Jatan Kumar Roy filed a case with Shahbagh Thana against the accused for reportedly causing a loss of Tk 15.52 crore to the government by allocating land among the journalists at a much lower rate.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Azharul Haque, former deputy director (land), was exempted from charges as the allegation against him was not proved during the primary investigation.

BDST: 1645 HRS, FEB 24, 2015