Graft cases revived against Hasina

A high court bench has fixed August 1 and 7 for hearing the cases after the government appealed to court yesterday to put up the matter for fresh hearing.

In one case, Hasina is accused of buying an unproven and poorly-equipped frigate at a cost of nearly 100 million dollars. She is also accused of breaching the country’s procurement rules and misusing her authority in the purchase of six MiG-29 fighter jets at a cost of 123 million dollars.

Legal proceedings in both cases have been suspended since 2003.

Earlier, officials said former home minister Air Vice Marshal (retd) Altaf Hossain Chowdhury of BNP, influential AL leader Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Sylhet mayor Badruddin Kamran of AL, BNP leader and Barisal mayor Mojibur Rahman, had been held in overnight raids.

Leading business figures Abdul Awal Mintu and Abul Hashem were also grilled during the 20-hour-long campaign which lasted till this morning. Mintu is a former president of the apex body of Bangladesh’s business chambers and Abul Hashem is a former BNP lawmaker.

Yesterday, AL general secretary Abdul Jalil and former state minister for home Lutfuzzaman Babar of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) regime, had been held.

Television channels reported that the security forces also searched the homes of those arrested and seized “important papers,” foreign currencies, foreign liquor and weapons.

BNP is yet to express any formal reaction to the arrests but Hasina slammed the authorities for arresting her party’s general secretary.