Decision on Hasina's bail prayer in Niko scam case June 5
Monday, 2 June 2008
A special court Sunday fixed June 5 for order on bail prayer filed by former Prime Minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina in connection with the Niko scam case, reports UNB.
After extensive legal arguments submitted by both the defence and the prosecution lawyers, judge AK Roy fixed the date before hearing on charge framing in the case.
As the court resumed at 10.00 am after detained Hasina, Prof Rafiqul Islam, former State Minister for Energy and Power, and its ex-secretary Tawfique-e-Elahi Chowdhury were produced before the court amid tight security.
The prosecution lawyers vehemently opposed Hasina's bail prayer moved by the defence counsel.
The prosecution side argued that since the state of emergency was in place, there was no scope for entertaining the bail petition as Section 19ga of the Emergency Power Rules (EPR) revokes the right to seek bail by an accused facing graft charges under 5(2) of the Anti-Corruption (Prevention) Act 1947.
On the other side, the defence lawyers made a strong plea for bail as they said the allegation against Hasina was 'baseless' and "ex facie vague and politically motivated".
They submitted that one of the charge-sheeted accused in the case had been granted bail, so, for the sake of justice, Hasina was eligible for getting bail.
Besides, they argued, "since former PM Hasina is an elderly woman who is seriously ill, the ordinary law provides for granting bail in such deteriorating physical condition".
Earlier, on application, the court allowed the defence counsel to meet Hasina at the sub-jail for legal consultation and to examine the seized material records in connection with the case.
Advocate Syed Rezaur Rahman, Sahara Khatun, Abdul Mannan Khan and Quamrul Islam appeared for Hasina while Chief Special Public Prosecutor Sharfuddin Khan Mukul and Syed Shameem Ahsan Habib stood for the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC).
On December 9 last year, the ACC filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station against Hasina and others, accusing them of collaborating with one another and awarding gas- extraction work at Chhatak, Kamta and Feni gas fields to the Canadian company, Niko Resources, by cheating to gain personal financial benefit.
On May 7, the ACC submitted charge-sheet against the detained former premier, Sheikh Hasina, and eight others for awarding gas-exploration-and-extraction deal to the Canadian company through alleged corruption and abuse of power.
The charge sheet also mentioned that the work was given to Niko in an illegal way without floating tender, allowing it to extract 1,794 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas from a reserve of 2,834 bcf, which caused the country a loss of Tk 13,6.30 billion (13,630.50 crore) at the rate of the then price of each million-cubic-feet gas at Tk 75.9783.
The other charge-sheeted accused, now on the run, are former principal secretary to Prime Minister SA Samad, former energy secretary M Akmal Hossain, former Petrobangla Chairman Mosharraf Hossain and Vice-President (South Asia) of Niko Resources Bangladesh Ltd, Kashem Sharif, former secretary of External Resources Division Dr AKM Moshiur Rahman and former director of Petrobangla (mines and mineral and operation) Sayed Anwarul Haque.
After extensive legal arguments submitted by both the defence and the prosecution lawyers, judge AK Roy fixed the date before hearing on charge framing in the case.
As the court resumed at 10.00 am after detained Hasina, Prof Rafiqul Islam, former State Minister for Energy and Power, and its ex-secretary Tawfique-e-Elahi Chowdhury were produced before the court amid tight security.
The prosecution lawyers vehemently opposed Hasina's bail prayer moved by the defence counsel.
The prosecution side argued that since the state of emergency was in place, there was no scope for entertaining the bail petition as Section 19ga of the Emergency Power Rules (EPR) revokes the right to seek bail by an accused facing graft charges under 5(2) of the Anti-Corruption (Prevention) Act 1947.
On the other side, the defence lawyers made a strong plea for bail as they said the allegation against Hasina was 'baseless' and "ex facie vague and politically motivated".
They submitted that one of the charge-sheeted accused in the case had been granted bail, so, for the sake of justice, Hasina was eligible for getting bail.
Besides, they argued, "since former PM Hasina is an elderly woman who is seriously ill, the ordinary law provides for granting bail in such deteriorating physical condition".
Earlier, on application, the court allowed the defence counsel to meet Hasina at the sub-jail for legal consultation and to examine the seized material records in connection with the case.
Advocate Syed Rezaur Rahman, Sahara Khatun, Abdul Mannan Khan and Quamrul Islam appeared for Hasina while Chief Special Public Prosecutor Sharfuddin Khan Mukul and Syed Shameem Ahsan Habib stood for the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC).
On December 9 last year, the ACC filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station against Hasina and others, accusing them of collaborating with one another and awarding gas- extraction work at Chhatak, Kamta and Feni gas fields to the Canadian company, Niko Resources, by cheating to gain personal financial benefit.
On May 7, the ACC submitted charge-sheet against the detained former premier, Sheikh Hasina, and eight others for awarding gas-exploration-and-extraction deal to the Canadian company through alleged corruption and abuse of power.
The charge sheet also mentioned that the work was given to Niko in an illegal way without floating tender, allowing it to extract 1,794 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas from a reserve of 2,834 bcf, which caused the country a loss of Tk 13,6.30 billion (13,630.50 crore) at the rate of the then price of each million-cubic-feet gas at Tk 75.9783.
The other charge-sheeted accused, now on the run, are former principal secretary to Prime Minister SA Samad, former energy secretary M Akmal Hossain, former Petrobangla Chairman Mosharraf Hossain and Vice-President (South Asia) of Niko Resources Bangladesh Ltd, Kashem Sharif, former secretary of External Resources Division Dr AKM Moshiur Rahman and former director of Petrobangla (mines and mineral and operation) Sayed Anwarul Haque.