Shawdesh Desk:

A Dhaka court set March 18 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 9th special judge court passed the order this morning at the newly built courtroom in front of Keraniganj Central Jail.

Today was fixed for holding hearing on charge framing in the case and counsels for prime accused Begum Khaleda Zia took part in the hearing but failed to conclude. At the end of today’s proceedings, the defence pleaded for time. Allowing the time plea, the court adjourned the hearing till March 18.

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

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

The other accused in the case are- Barrister Moudud Ahmed, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, Khandaker Shahidul Islam, CM Eusuf Hossain, Mir Moinul Haque, Md Shafiur Rahman, Gias Uddin Al Mamun, MAH Selim and Kashem Sharif.