A Dhaka court on Tuesday set January 19 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 Special Judge Court-9 passed the order at the makeshift courtroom at Keraniganj Central Jail.

Today was fixed for holding hearings on charge framing in the case, but prime accused Begum Khaleda Zia failed to appear before the court due to the coronavirus situation and her lawyers plead for time.

Allowing the defence plea, the court then adjourned the hearing till January 19.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case against five including Begum Khaleda Zia with Tejgaon police station on December 9 in 2007, for abusing power in signing a deal with Canadian company Niko for exploring and extracting gas.

The ACC on May 5 in 2008, submitted the charge-sheet against 11 people including Khaleda Zia. The ACC accused them of incurring a loss of more than Tk 13 thousand crore of state exchequer by that deal.

Khaleda is in jail since February 8, 2018, the day she was convicted in a graft case. She was shifted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital on April 1,2019 and has been undergoing treatment there since then.

On March 25 this year, Khaleda’s sentence has been suspended for six months and currently she is staying in her Gulshan house.

BDST: 1333 HRS, JAN 05, 2021
AP/SMS