Bangla SC stays Khaleda's bail in graft case

Dhaka, Oct 4: The Bangladesh Supreme Court today stayed a High Court order granting bail to former prime minister Khaleda Zia in a corruption case.

An Appellate Division of the apex court also froze the High Court's (HC) stay over the proceedings of the case and set aside the show-cause notice in which the HC ordered the government to explain in six weeks why bringing the case under the emergency power rules shall not be declared illegal, the Daily Star reported.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on September 2 filed the case against Khaleda, her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko and 11 other people for allegedly receiving kickbacks in awarding Gatco the contract for container management at inland container depots in Dhaka and Chittagong.

The complainant alleged that due to tendering of the work to Gatco the exchequer incurred a loss of over 1,000 crore taka.

The High Court granted bail to the former prime minister on Sunday.

The ACC appealed against the HC decision following which the chamber judge of the Supreme Court referred the case to the full-bench hearing of the Appellate Division yesterday.

UNI