ACC approves charges against Khaleda

From New Age
The Anti-Corruption Commission on Monday pressed graft charges against Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia and three others for using undisclosed money in buying land for a charity named after the late president, Ziaur Rahman.

The investigation officer of the case, Harunur Rashid, submitted the charge sheet to the General Registration Officer of the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court after the commission had approved it in the morning.

The court officials said the charge sheet would be placed before the CMM, AKM Enamul Haque, today for his signature, from where it would be transferred to the senior special judge Mohammad Zohurul Haque for further proceedings.

Khaleda’s lawyer Sanaullah Miah told New Age, ‘The ACC pressed the charge against the leader of the opposition in a bid to harass her politically.’

The ACC has no authority to interfere in the affairs of the private trust, he added.

Khaleda, who had obtained an eight-week bail from the High Court in the case, on December 8, 2012, would go to the CMM court around noon today to furnish her bail bond, the lawyer said.

Charges were also pressed against Haris Chowdhury, political secretary to the then prime minister Khaleda Zia, Ziaul Islam (Munna), former assistant private secretary to Haris, and Manirul Islam Khan, former assistant private secretary to former Dhaka mayor Sadeq Hossain Khoka for helping Khaleda in committing the offence.

Charges were pressed against Khaleda, now leader of the opposition, for committing the offence under Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947.

According to the law, the offence is non-bailable, and if the charge is proved, Khaleda may be sentenced to seven years in jail.

The three other accused may also be handed similar punishment for helping her in committing the offence.

The commission made the decision to submit the charge sheet in the case after examining the evidence and documents found during investigation, anti-corruption commissioner Muhammad Sahabuddin told New Age.

Thirty-six people were named as prosecution witnesses in the case, he said.

Harris Chowdhury is on the run while Khaleda and the two others are now on bail, the charge sheet said.

The Shaheed Zia Charitable Trust case was also the first case filed against Khaleda since the Awami League-led alliance assumed office on January 6, 2009.

Harunur Rashid, also assistant director of the commission, lodged the case with the Tejgaon police station on August 8, 2011 against Khaleda and the three.

According to the charge sheet, Khaleda, the then prime minister, had committed criminal misconduct by abusing her power in creating the trust as well as accumulating money from undisclosed sources and buying the piece of land at Kakrail in the city for the trust in 2005.

It also said that an account in the name of Shaheed Zia Charitable Trust had been opened with the Prime Minister’s Office branch of the Sonali Bank on January 9, 2005.

Around Tk 78.9 million was deposited in the bank account after a week. The BNP deposited Tk 61.9 million, Metro Makers Developers Ltd Tk 13.5 million and Ziaul Islam Tk 2.7 million, the charge sheet said.

It further said that the piece of land was bought on January 19, 2005 for Tk 65.2 million. But the seller, Suraiya Khanam, received Tk 12.5 million in addition to the amount the land was bought for.

The additional amount of money in the seller’s bank account came from the trust and the trust failed to show any valid source of the money, said the charge sheet.

It also said that Khaleda had not replied to any of the four letters the commission issued asking her to make a statement on the allegations.

Although the trust was set up in the name of charity, no charitable activities had ever been done by it, the charge sheet alleged.

The case was filed although the commission was yet to reply to a rule issued by the High Court on May 24, 2010 asking it to explain why its notice asking Khaleda to make a statement in connection with the probe into the alleged charity fund graft should not be declared illegal.

This is the second case, in which charges have been pressed against Khaleda since assumption of power by the Awami League.

On August 5, 2009 the corruption watchdog also pressed charges against Khaleda, Tarique and four others for embezzling Tk 2.1 crore from the Zia Orphanage Trust’s fund between June 1991 and February 2007.

Harunur Rashid, who filed the Zia Orphanage Trust case on July 3, 2008 during the rule of the military-controlled interim government, had submitted the charge sheet.

Khaleda is also facing at least three more cases on graft charges – GATCO graft case, Niko graft case and Barapukuria graft case.