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Gatco Graft

Jail prepares for more VVIPs

Staff Correspondent
Several rooms at Dhaka Central Jail have been kept ready for accommodating more high profile prisoners. jail sources said last night.
The prison authorities took this step sensing arrest of former ministers and top leaders against whom charges in the Gatco graft case were pressed on Tuesday night.
“We are always ready. We are bound to accept (any prisoners) if court sends them to us,“ said Major Shamsul Haider Siddique. deputy inspector general (DIG) of prisons.
Earlier, those accused in graft cases were arrested immediately after the cases were filed or charges pressed against them. But some of the accused in Gatco case were at large even after police prayed to court to issue arrest warrant against them.
Of the 24 persons with charges pressed against them, those at large include BNP leaders former finance minister M Saifur Rahman, former LGRD minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, former land minister M Shamsul Islam, former agriculture minister MK Anwar and former commerce minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury -- and Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer and former industries minister Motiur Rahman Nizami.
Saifur and Amir Khasru are abroad.
The accused in detention include former prime mimister Khaleda Zia, her younger son, Arafat Rahman Koko, former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain, former chief finance and accounts officer Ahmed Abul Qashem. former Chinagong Port Authority (CPA) chairman commodore (retd) Zulfiqur Ali and Gatco directors AKM Musa Kajol and Ehsan Yusuf, while the rest were shown absconding.
As soon as the charge sheet in the Gatco graft case was submitted, rumours ran high that the law enforcers were moving to arrest the former BNP and Jamaat ministers charged with graft.
Even the leaders themselves were prepared for this, said family sources.
Sources close to Mannan Bhuiyan said he would surrender to court at 10:00am today.
Senior BNP leaders Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Major (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed, Maj Gen (retd) ZA Khan and dozens of other party leaders and activists met Mannan Bhuyian at his Gulshan residence yesterday. He however did not make anycomments.
MK Anwar's family members said he would take a decision after receiving court order.
Nizami yesterday held a press conference at his Moghbazar party office where he said a move was underway for arrestinghim.
Meanwhile. M Shamsul Islam and MK Anwar yesterday went to the Supreme Court (SO to have
advice from their lawyers. But they could not get that due to some reasons.
Meanwhile, the trial court yesterday did not pass any order on acceptance of the charge sheet in the case.
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s (CMM) Court sent the case to the trial court at about 4:00pm for taking the charge sheet into cognisance for trial. But Judge Mohammad Azizul Haque did not pass any order.
Sources said if the trial court accepted the charge sheet, there would be an order for arrest warrants against the accused who were shown absconding in the probe report
IO of the case ACC Deputy Director Johirul Huda appealed to the court for arrest warrants against those absconding, and orders for attaching their properties