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Khaleda charged with Niko graft

Charge sheet against Hasina likely today

Court Correspondent
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday pressed charges against detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia and 10 others for abuse of power and graft in awarding a gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko.
Former law minister Moudud Ahmed and former state minister for energy A KM Mosharraf Hossain are among the other charge-sheeted accused.
This is the first time formal charges have been laid against Khaleda since her arrest on September 3 last year.
The ACC is likely to submit charge sheet today against Awami
League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina, another detained former prime minister, and six others in a similar case involving Niko Resources Limited.
SM Sahidur Rahman, ACC assistant director and the investigation officer (10), submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's (CMM) Court in Dhaka, showing 68 people as prosecution witnesses.
Kamal Uddin Siddique, former principal secretary to prime minister, Khandaker Shahidul Islam, former acting energy secretary, CM Yousuf Hossain, former senior assistant secretary of Energy and Mineral Resources Department. Meer Moynul Haque, former senior general manager of Bapex, Shafiur
Rahman, former secretary of Bapex, Giasuddin Al Mamun, managing director of One Group, Selim Bhuiyan, chairman and managing director of International Travel Corporation, and Kashem Sharif, vice-president (South Asia) of Niko Resources Bangladesh Ltd, are the others indicted
Though arrested on other charges, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, Moudud, Mosharraf. Shahidul. Selim and Mamun were later shown arrested in the Niko graft case.
The IO said the 11 should be brought to trial as the charges against them have been proved primarily.
Besides, he appealed the court to issue warrants for arrest of Kamal Uddin Siddique, Yusuf, Moynul, Shafiur Rahman and Kashem, and order attachment of their properties for their absconding since the case was filed.
The charges were made under section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 109 (abetment) of the penal code and 5(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act 1947.
According to the charge sheet, the accused in collaboration with each other struck an anti-state "joint venture agreement" with Niko, causing a loss of Tk 13,777 crore to the state coffers.
In a confessional statement to a magistrate, Selim said all dealings between the then government and the Canadian company were made through him.
The IO said they have gathered 14 pieces of evidence from different places and those are enough to substantiate the charges.
On December 9 last year, the ACC filed the case against Khaleda. Moudud, Mosharraf, Shahidul and Kashem with Tejgaon Police Station. Six others were named as defendants after probes found their involvement The same day with the same police station it brought similar charges against Hasina as well.
Approved by the anti-graft body on April 30, the charge sheet said Joint Secretary and Petrobangla Director (Finance) Yousuf Hossain distorted documents on the Niko deal, concealed information to get the deal done and tried to influence department officials.
Shafiur and Moynul prepared the framework of understanding (FoU) in a way that helped Niko cut the deal in 2003.
Giasuddin Al Mamun and Selim were included in the charge sheet for bribery. Selim received Tk 3 crore from Kashem Sharif and gave Tk 1.80 crore from it to Mamun, a controversial businessman and friend ofTarique Zia.
Kamal Uddin was charged for the role he played all along the process of awarding the deal to Niko, ignoring objections from Petrobangla experts who said it [the contract] would mean compromisingnational interest
The charge sheet will be sent to the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court in Dhaka today for its cogni sance. The court will order the next steps to be taken against the accused.
THE DEAL
Since being disqualified by the government in the second-round block bidding for oil and gas exploration in 1997, Niko had beer relentless in efforts to enter the country's energy scene through the backdoor.
Though the then energy secre tary Tawfiq-c-Elahi Chowdhur)
promoted a joint venture deal between the Canadian company and Bapex, the AL government (1996-2001) could not okay it in absence of necessary legal frame-
During the tenure of BNP-led alliance government that came to power in 2001, Niko successfully pushed for the deal to be closed through ruling party high-ups and its legal adviser Moudud Ahmed, then the law minister.
In this secretly-inked agreement, Niko was given gas exploration and extraction work at an unused gas field shown as marginal or used.
Any contract granting rights to explore an unused field must be given to a qualified firm through a competitive bidding.