DHAKA: The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for the lower court to resume the trial proceedings against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in Niko graft case.

The three-member bench of Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha scrapped a High Court order that stayed the trial proceedings.

ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said that following the order, now there is no legal bar to resume the trial proceedings.

Earlier on March 07, the HC bench of Justice Sheikh Abdul Awal and Justice Mohammad Khasruzzaman in an order stayed the trial proceedings against Khaleda Zia in the case. The HC passed the order following a petition filed by the BNP chief.

Later, the ACC filed an application to the apex court seeking cancellation of the HC order.  

Earlier on December 1 in 2016, the High Court issued a rule following a petition filed by Barrister Moudud Ahmed, who is also one of the accused in the case, and the court stayed trial proceedings about the BNP leader for eight weeks.   

On December 9 in 2007, the ACC filed the case with Tejgaon police station against Khaleda Zia and a few members of the cabinet of the BNP-led government of 2001-2006 tenure accusing them for incurring loss of Tk 137.77 billion to the state exchequer by signing oil-gas exploration agreements with Canadian company Niko.

The ACC framed charges in the case in May in 2008.

Khaleda Zia filed a plea challenging the legality of the case. The High Court on July 15 in 2008 stayed proceedings of the graft case for two months and issued a ruling. Later, the stay order was upheld by the Appellate Division.

On June 18 in 2016, the HC cleared the way for the trial proceedings to resume.

BDST: 1124 HRS, MAR 23, 2017
EHJ/SMS