Staff Correspondent

A Dhaka Court on Sunday granted the Anti-Corruption Commission's prayer for interrogating BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia in special jail in connection with the Niko corruption case.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Golam Rabbani issued the order after hearing the plea filed by the commission's assistant director SM Shahidur Rahman, investigation officer of the case.

'The former prime minister and four others were sued for their involvement in corruption by signing joint venture agreement between Niko Resources Bangladesh Limited and Bapex to explore gas in Feni, Chhatak and Kamta fields,' the IO said in the prayer.

The accused caused a loss of Tk 10,000 crore to the state exchequer by signing the deal with Niko, a Canadian Oil Company, he claimed. Khaleda was shown arrested in the case, the IO said, adding, 'We need to interrogate her and record her statement for the sake of proper investigation of the case.'

The commission filed the case with the Tejgaon police on December 9, 2007 against Khaleda, former law minister Moudud Ahmed, former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain, former acting energy secretary Khandaker Shahidul Islam and Niko (South Asia) vice-president Kashem Sharif. Bangladesh Cricket Board executive member Selim Bhuiyan was also implicated in the case after his arrest on January 10.

Khaleda was arrested on September 3, Moudud on April 23 and Mosharraf on February 8, 2007. They were shown arrested in the case on December 12.

The commission grilled both Moudud and Mosharraf in jail on January 30 and 31 respectively. Earlier it recorded statements of some officials in connection with the case. A separate case was also filed with the Tejgaon police the same day against another former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and six others for alleged corruption in awarding the deal to Niko Resources. None of the accused and witnesses in the case has testified yet, said sources in the commission.

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