ACC indicts Hasina, Khaleda,
18 others in two Niko cases
Courtesy New Age 1/5/08
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The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion on Wednesday approved submission of charge-sheets against the two detained former prime ministers — Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia — and 18 others, including a bureaucrat still in service, in two cases for corruption in signing contracts with a Canadian oil company, Niko Resources, that caused a huge loss of Tk 23,630.50 crore to the national exchequer.
In addition to the two former premiers, the ACC will press charges against three former ministers, seven retired bureaucrats, four former and current BAPEX officials, an incumbent government official and a Niko official.
The ACC’s meeting, held in the morning, approved the submission of the charge-sheets against the 20 accused people. The charge-sheets will be submitted to the court next week after the completion of some pending official work, said its spokesman, director-general Hanif Iqbal, at a news briefing on Wednesday.
Awami League president Hasina, former state minister for energy in her cabinet Rafiqul Islam, former principal secretary SA Samad, former energy secretaries Toufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury and M Akmal Hossain, former secretary of the Economic Relations Division AKM Moshiur Rahman, the then Petrobangla chairman Mosharraf Hossain, its director Syed Anwarul Haque, and Niko’s South Asia vice-president Quasem Sharif will be indicted for causing a loss of Tk 13,630.50 crore to the state.
Moshiur Rahman and Anwarul Haque were not named in the First Information Report of the case, lodged by ACC’s deputy director MM Shabbir Hasan with the Tejgaon
The ACC’s task-force has so far arrested Hasina, Rafiqul and Toufiq.
Former law minister Moudud Ahmed and former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain of Khaleda’s cabinet, former principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, Petrobangla’s joint secretary and director (finance) CM Yousuf Hussain, Bapex’s former secretary Shafiur Rahman, its former general manager Mir Mainul Haque, the then acting energy secretary Khandakar Shahidul Islam, One Group’s managing director Giasuddin Al Mamun, International Travel Corporation’s chairman and managing director Selim Bhuiyan and Quasem Sharif of Niko will be indicted along with Khaleda Zia, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s chairperson, for causing a loss of Tk 10,000 crore to the state by signing the Niko deal.
Among the persons accused above, the ACC’s task-force has arrested Khaleda, Moudud, Mosharraf, Shahidul, Mamun and Selim, who are now in jail. The names of Kamal, Yousuf, Shafiur, Mainul, Mamun and Selim were not mentioned in the FIR of the case.
Both the cases were lodged under the Penal Code, but the ACC placed the cases under the Emergency Powers Rules.
ACC’s assistant director Shahidur Rahman, also the investigation officer of the case against Khaleda and others, on March 13 submitted the investigation report to the ACC, recommending submission of charge-sheets against 14 persons, including the five accused initially.
On March 20, investigation officer SM Shabbir Hasan, who is also a deputy director of the ACC, submitted the probe report to the ACC, recommending the filing of charge-sheets against the persons named in the FIR in the case filed by him.
Hasina and others will be indicted for criminal breach of trust under Sections 409 and 511 of the Penal Code, criminal misconduct under Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947 and abetment of the offence under Section 109 of the Penal Code.
The offences are non-bailable and punishable with imprisonment for 10 years under Section 409, for five years under Section 511, and seven years under Section 5(2). The punishment for abetment is similar to the punishment for the offence.
Khaleda and ten others also face non-bailable charges under Sections 409 and 109 of the Penal Code and Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The First Information Report against Hasina and others stated that Niko Resources Bangladesh Ltd was declared incompetent by the technical and financial evaluation committee after the company participated in the second round of bidding in 1997 for oil and gas exploration.
The company again submitted a proposal to the energy ministry on June 28, 1998 for digging development wells and extracting gas in Kamta, Chhatak, Bianibazar and Fenchuganj gas-fields, showing them as marginal and non-producing fields. A framework of understanding was signed between the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration Company and Niko for conducting a joint study of those fields.
The then prime minister Sheikh Hasina on June 14, 2001 approved a system of developing marginal and abandoned gas-fields, ignoring the opinions of the technical experts of Petrobangla, Bapex and Sylhet Gasfield Ltd.
Accordingly, at the fag end of the Awami League’s regime, three gas-fields — Kamta, Feni and Chhatak
— were declared marginal and abandoned and the authorities concerned were directed to finalise a joint venture agreement to allow Niko and Bapex to extract gas from the three fields.
By declaring the gas-fields marginal and abandoned and allowing Niko to extract gas without following due process, Hasina and six others caused loss of Tk 13,630.50 crore to the state exchequer, said the FIR.
The FIR against Khaleda and four others stated that after the change of the government, Niko sent a letter to the then state minister for energy, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, on November 17, 2001 to finalise the joint venture agreement prepared at the fag end of the
When he was asked by the energy ministry to give his opinion, the then law minister Moudud Ahmed on March 17, 2003 opined that Chhatak (east) gas-field should be incorporated in Chhatak Gasfield.
The FIR said Moudud was Niko’s legal adviser and his opinion was similar to that of Niko’s legal adviser’s opinion given on August 10, 2002.
The proposal for signing the joint venture agreement, incorporating the Chhatak (east) Gasfield in the Chhatak Gasfield, was sent to the then prime minister Khaleda Zia on September 7, 2003.
The state minister on October 8, 2003 wrote a note on the file stating that the prime minister had ordered the ministry to sign the agreement.
Accordingly, the agreement was signed on October 16, 2003, allowing Niko to extract gas from Chhatak and Feni gas-fields, causing a loss of Tk 10,000 crore to the state exchequer, said the FIR.
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