ACC to charge-sheet Khaleda, 15 others today or tomorrow

---

The Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) will press charges either today (Sunday) or tomorrow (Monday) against former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, 10 powerful ministers of her cabinet and five others in the Barapukuria graft case, reports UNB.
Sources said investigation officer (IO) of the case Abul Kashem Fakir, also an ACC deputy director, will submit the charge sheet in the high-profile case to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court.
Earlier, prior to Eid vacation, the anti-graft watchdog approved the submission of the charge sheet against all the 16 accused in the case filed about seven months ago.
However, the IO told the news agency that the charge sheet would be submitted after receiving of the sanction letter from the Commission, but he is yet to receive the sanction letter.
Kashem, who reinvestigated the case, submitted the memo of evidence (investigation report) on September 18 with a recommendation of pressing charges against all the accused.
Following filing of the case on February 26 this year, ACC deputy director Monirul Haque was appointed its IO, and he submitted the investigation report in mid-June after months of investigation.
But, the ACC ordered reinvestigation, as they were not happy with the investigation.
Later, Abul Kashem Fakir was appointed to reinvestigate the high-profile case.
This will be the third charge sheet against the immediate-past premier during the current cleanup drive, after having been charge-sheeted in Gatco and Niko graft cases.
The ACC, during the post-1/11 corruption drive, filed the case against Khaleda Zia, now out of jail on bail, 10 ministers and five others for embezzlement of about Tk 1.59 billion (159 crore) of the National Exchequer through awarding the Barapukuria Coal Mine deal to the highest bidder instead of the lowest one.
Former Finance Minister Saifur Rahman, ex-BNP secretary general and LGRD Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Jamaat chief and ex-Industries Minister Motiur Rahman Nizami and its secretary general and ex-Social Welfare Minister Ali Ahsan M Mujahid are the heavyweights among the ministers of the immediate-past coalition government implicated by the ACC.
The other former ministers accused in the case are Health Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Agriculture Minister MK Anwar, Information Minister Shamsul Islam, Commerce Minister Air Vice-Marshall (retd) Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Telecommunications Minister Barrister Aminul Haque and State Minister for Energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain.
The rest of the accused are former energy secretary Nazrul Islam, former Petrobangla chairman and former BISIC chairman SR Osmani, former Petrobangla director Moinul Ahsan, former managing director of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Sirajul Islam and Hossaf Group chairman Moazzem Hossain.
In the case, filed with Shahbagh police station, the anti-graft watchdog body accused the top politicians and bureaucrats of "misappropriating about Tk 1.59 billion through causing loss to the country's exchequer by awarding the contract of production, management and maintenance of the Barapukuria Coal Mine in Dinajpur to the highest bidder."
Apart from Khaleda and AKM Mosharraf, all the nine former ministers were the members of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase that had approved the deal. Khaleda was in charge of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources while AKM Mosharraf its state minister.
The Commission in the first-information report (FIR) blamed the individuals for misappropriation of the money through misuse of power, either for their own benefit or for the benefit of others.