BNP standing committee member and former minister Mosharraf Hossain said that a GATCO corruption case was filed against Khaleda Zia to remove her from politics. Very happy to be acquitted of false, fabricated case. 1/11's political kushilabs made a fabricated case to minus Begum Khaleda Zia and BNP from politics.
He said these words in immediate response after being acquitted from the GATCO corruption case on Thursday (October 24).
Mosharraf Hossain also said, 'Even though the case was filed 17 years ago, the court could not form a complaint so far. If there was any material here to form a complaint, then the Sheikh Hasina government would have tried it earlier. Because he tried to destroy Begum Khaleda Zia, BNP. However, after analyzing everything legally, the court has exempted us.
On this day, the GATCO corruption case was scheduled for the hearing of the charge sheet. Khaleda's lawyer appeared on behalf of Zia. After that, the complaint formation hearing started. Lawyers Masud Ahmed Talukder, Syed Zainul Abedin Mejbah, Zakir Hossain Bhuiyan for the accused held a hearing seeking exemption. On the other hand, ACC Public Prosecutor Mir Ahmed Ali Salam heard the case. After the hearing of both parties, the court of Dhaka Special Court-3 Judge Abu Taher released the three from the liability of the case. In addition, he filed a complaint against 12 other accused.
Exempted are – former minister Dr. Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain, BNP Standing Committee Member Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury.
The other accused who started the trial are Jahanara Anshar, wife of late minister Colonel (retd) Akbar Hossain, two sons Ismail Hossain Simon and AKM Musa Kajal, Ehsan Yusuf, former naval secretary Zulfikar Haider Chowdhury, former member of Chittagong Port Authority AK Rashid Uddin. Ahmed, then GATCO director Shahjahan M Hasib, Syed Tanveer Ahmed and Syed Ghalib Ahmed, former chairman of Chittagong Port Authority ASM Shahadat Hossain and former port director (transport) AM Sanwar Hossain.
On September 2, 2007, Golam Shahriar Chowdhury, Deputy Director of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), filed this case at Tejgaon police station. 13 people including Khaleda Zia, her younger son, Arafat Rahman Koko, the then prime minister of the four-party coalition government were accused. Khaleda Zia and Coco were arrested the day after the case. On September 18 of that year, the case was included in the Emergency Powers Act. Next year, on May 13, the charge sheet was submitted against 24 people including Khaleda Zia. Out of the 24 accused in this case, eight including former minister M Saifur Rahman have died. Besides, as the death sentence of former Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Matiur Rahman Nizami was executed, he was also released from the case.
It is said in the complaint that the accused have caused a loss of 14 crore 56 lakh 37 thousand 616 rupees to the state by getting the work of container handling of Kamalapur Inland Container Depot (ICD) of Dhaka and Chittagong Port to the contracting company GATCO in collusion with each other.
