C T Online Desk: A Dhaka court on Wednesday set March 20 for holding a hearing on charge framing in the Barapukuria Coalmine graft case against BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and nine others.
The date was announced by Judge Md Akhtaruzzaman of Dhaka Special Judge Court-2 after the defence lawyers pleaded for time as Khaleda Zia could not appear before the court because of her poor health.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on February 26, 2008 filed the graft case against Khaleda Zia and 15 others at Shahbagh police station.
ACC Deputy Director Md Abul Kashem Fokir on October 5, 2008, pressed charges against the 16.
They were accused of causing a loss of around Tk159 crore to the state exchequer by awarding a contract for the operation of the Barapukuria coal mine to a Chinese company through abuse of power.
The 16 accused were Khaleda Zia, M Saifur Rahman, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Matiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, MK Anwar, M Shamsul Islam, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Barrister Aminul Huq, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, Nazrul Islam, SR Osmani, Moinul Ahsan, Md Sirajul Islam and Moazzem Hossain.
Of the 16, convicted war criminals Nizami and Mojaheed were hanged and four others died of natural causes, so their names were dropped from the case during the framing of the charges.
