Another graft charge against Hasina

---

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Sunday filed a graft case involving Tk 30 million (3 crore) against detained former prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, already enmeshed in around a dozen other serious cases, reports UNB.
The ACC move came while Hasina submitted her wealth statement to the jail authorities, showing her wealth worth around Tk 31 million (3.10 crore), Hasina's counsel informed.
Six other prominent persons are also implicated in the corruption case, the first by the anti-graft watchdog body against the ex-PM, recently arrested under the ongoing crackdown on corrupt politicians by the interim government.
The co-accused are former Energy Secretary Toufique Elahi, former PDB chairman Noor Uddin Mahmud Kamal, Summit Group chairman Aziz Khan and his brother Farid Khan, Hasan Mahmud Raja and Abul Kalam Azad. ACC Deputy Director Sabbir Hasan lodged the case with the Tejgaon police station at 3:45pm, accusing Hasina of taking Tk 30 million from the Summit Group and the United Group of Companies in the power sector.
The case statement mentioned that the former Prime Minister had received the kickbacks from the two power companies during October 24, 1996 to November 24, 1997.They paid the money for buying land for Bangabandhu Memorial Trust in exchange for permission to set up a barge-mounted power plant in Khulna, it was alleged.
This is the fifth case filed against Sheikh Hasina, now detained in a special jail in the Jatiya Sangsad compound.
However, Hasina's tax lawyer Advocate Khandakar Moniruzzaman confirmed submission of her wealth statement Sunday.
"The three-page statement has been submitted to the jail authorities after she approved it today," her tax lawyer told reporters after his two hours of meeting with Hasina at the special jail at the parliament building complex."Nothing has been concealed and no false information has been given in the statement," said Moniruzzaman, adding that the former Prime Minister scrutinised the statement and expressed her satisfaction.
In the statement, Hasina showed that she does not own any residence nor land and that most of her properties are inherited, the counsel said. She does not have any properties or house in Dhaka or abroad. Her sources of income have been shown as salary and benefits she used to receive as Prime Minister, Member of Parliament, opposition leader and all her properties were inherited.
She has about Tk 20 million deposited in eight accounts with Sonali, Rupali, Pubali and Agrani banks.
The Sudha Sadan residence at Dhanmondi worth about Tk 6.0 million (60 lakh) is in the name of her husband and it has also been shown in her property statement.
In the statement, properties owned by Hasina include a jute warehouse on ten kathas of land at Dighulia in Khulna. The jute warehouse worth about Tk 5.0 million is shown as a property inherited from Hasina's mother, late Fazilatunnesa Mujib.
Ten kathas of land and a pond on six kathas at Gopalganj are also shown as her property inherited from her grandfather Sheikh Lutfar Rahman. She and her sister Sheikh Rehana jointly inherited several bighas of land from her father in Tungipara. Hasina also owns two cars which she received as gifts from AL leaders in Europe.
Hasina was arrested on July 16 in connection with an extortion case involving about Tk 30 million, filed by Azam J Chowdhury, Managing Director of Eastcoast Private Trading Ltd, also a power company. On April 9, Tajul Islam Farook, chairman of Westmont Power Company, filed the first case, during this regime, with the Tejgaon police station under non-bailable sections of the penal code. In the case Tajul brought allegations against Hasina of extortion and abuse of power in 1998, when she was Prime Minister On June 13, two separate extortion cases-one involving Tk 50 million and another involving over Tk 29.9 million-were filed against her. Noor Ali, managing director of the Unique Group of Companies, filed one case with the Tejgaon Police Station accusing Hasina and her two relatives of extorting Tk 50 million in exchange for mediating between the Power Development Board (PDB) and his firm to finalise a power-plant deal in 1997.
Azam J Chowdhury, managing director of the East Coast Trading Private Ltd, filed the other case with the Gulshan Police Station against Hasina and AL leader Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim for extorting over Tk 29.9 million.
She is also implicated in the Paltan Killing Case related to several deaths during the mayhem of last October arising out of a political standoff. A good number of other cases have long been pending against her since the times of the past BNP-led coalition government, including the frigate and Mig-29 purchase cases.