The Appellate Division of Supreme court on Monday cancelled Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia’s petition challenging the High Court Division verdict that hadasked the trial court to restart her trial in the Gatco corruption case.
A four-judge bench led by the Chief Justice, SK Sinha, dismissed Khaleda’s plea observing that the writ petition she had recorded for quashing the proceedings in the Gatco case was not maintainable.
Later, Anti-Corruption Commission lawyer Md Khurshid Alam Khan told reporters that the apex court order paved the way to restart Khaleda’s trial in the graft case.
Earlier on May 10, 2016, former prime minister Khaleda Zia filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against the High Court order that rejected her two petitions challenging the legality of the Gatco graft case and its inclusion under the Emergency Powers Act.
On August 5, 2015, an HC bench comprising of Justice Md Nuruzzaman and Justice Abdur Rob rejected the writ petitions. The bench had also asked Khaleda Zia to surrender before the lower court in two months.
On September 2, 2007, the Anti-Corruption Commission had filed the Gatco graft case against Khaleda and 12 others for causing a loss of Tk 145.64 crore to the national exchequer by allegedly awarding the contract of container handling at the Chittagong port and the Dhaka’s Inland Container Depot to Gatco.
Khaleda on September 27, 2007, had filed a petition with the HC challenging the legality of the inclusion of the case under the Emergency Powers Act and seeking a stay order on the trial proceedings.
In 2008, an HC bench issued a rule and stayed the trial proceedings after hearing the petition of the BNP chief.