HC fixes August 23 for order on Khaleda's plea for records

The High Court yesterday fixed August 23 for passing an order on two petitions filed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia praying to it to call for all the records and the final report in Barapukuria corruption case.

The BNP chief filed the petitions on August 18 in order to know the legal procedure under which the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) appointed the second investigation officer to probe into the case after the first IO had exempted her from it in June 2008.

The ACC filed the case on February 26, 2008 accusing Khaleda and 15 others of causing a loss of Tk 159 crore to the state exchequer by awarding a contract of operating Barapukuria coalmine to a Chinese company, abusing power.

Later, the HC stayed the case proceedings for several times and issued a rule on the government and the ACC to explain why the case against Khaleda should not be scrapped.

Raghib Rauf Chowdhury argued for Khaleda while ACC's lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan opposed the petitions.