Scam case against Hasina deferred till June 25

Dhaka, Jun 22: An anti-corruption special court on Sunday, June 22 kept in abeyance the arraignment hearing till June 25 in the Niko scam case against former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The High Court had called for trial court records on June 19 during hearing on a petition filed by Hasina seeking quashment of the Niko case to examine whether the case had been filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) with due process of law. As the special court resumed on Sunday, June 22, defence counsel Advocate Shaha Khatun proposed an adjournment of arraignment hearing, citing the High Court order.

Judge A K Roy said the court did not receive any High Court order in this regard. The court, however, adjourned the hearing till June 25. Principal accused Hasina, who was dispensed with personal attendance in trial court proceedings, was represented by Adv Khatun.

Ms Hasina is now in Washington for treatment of her ears and eyes.

On May 7, the ACC submitted the chargesheet to the court against Ms Hasina and seven others. According to the chargesheet, the accused in collaboration with each other awarded gas extraction work at Chhatak, Kamta and Feni gas fields to Niko Resources Ltd, a Canadian company, by cheating to get personal financial benefit which caused the country a loss of 13,630.50 crore takkas.

UNI