Khaleda Zia arrested!

[Nocturnal]

KHALEDA ZIA ARRESTED

Mon, Sep 3rd, 2007 7:55 am BdST
Dhaka, Sept 3 (bdnews24.com) – The police arrested Khaleda Zia and her son Arafat Rahman Coco at their cantonment home early Monday, security officials said.

She was arrested shortly after 7:30am along with Coco.

The embattled former prime minister and her son were led away at 7:39am, in a security bubble. The move came hours after the Anticorruption Commission filed a corruption case against 13 people, including the former prime minister and the younger son.

Police and RAB officers and intelligence agents swarmed the road to the Shaheed Mainul Road residence of the BNP chief.

Khaleda will be taken to the court of metropolitan magistrate Md Salehuddin. Security officers put in place a huge security arrangement on the road to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court for Dhaka.

In an exclusive phone interview with bdnews24.com a couple of hour before the arrest, Khaleda said: "I'm not afraid of arrest. People are with me. The case against me is false."

Khaleda faces allegations of having a role in shady appointment of a private handling company, Global Agro Trade Company as a contractor for the Inland Container Depot in Kamalapur and Chittagong Port Container Terminal.

The ACC alleged that Khaleda used her influence illegally as prime minister in the appointment of the contractor.

In the build-up to the arrest, scores of security officers in plainclothes drove into Dhaka cantonment before dawn, as the arrest of the BNP chairperson loomed in the horizon.

Plainclothes officers arrived at the house at around 5:15am and asked Khaleda and Coco to "get ready" in a clear indication of arrest, house staffer Ruhul Amin told bdnews24.com at 5:40am.

At least 10 cars in the first batch drove into the cantonment shortly after 5am, followed by another convoy of up to 25 cars, witnesses reported from the scene.

In the rare interview with bdnews24.com, Khaleda said: "Against the BNP, there was a conspiracy in the past. Still there is. I hope BNP leaders and workers stay united."

"I worked for people all my life. I'm passing the burden of justice to people as well. Please pray for me," Khaleda told bdnews24.com by phone from home.

http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?cid=2&id=20090

[Mahir]

News Just In :

BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and her youngest son Arafat Rahman Coco have just been arrested (at 7.50 AM BDT), and taken to Dhaka CMM Court.

Source : NTV & Channel i News Ticker

[Rabz]

God Bless the CTG!
Bangladesh's two most wanted are in jail now!

[sunny747]

unek din por banglacricket a ashilam. khub bhalo lagtese. Hasina khaleda shesh. now it's time for jamaat.

[Sohel]

Khaleda, Koko sued
Charged with appointing container handling firm in violation of tender conditions
Staff Correspondent

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) last night filed its first graft case against former prime minister Khaleda Zia, her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko and 11 others.

They have been charged with violating tender conditions in appointing Global Agro Trade (Private) Company Ltd (GATCO), an indenting house, for container handling at the Dhaka Inland Container Depot (ICD) and the Chittagong Port ICD yard despite its lacking experience and skills.

The co-accused in the case are ex-chairmen of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Commodore (retd) Zulfiqur Ali and AMM Shahadat Hossain, ex-director (transport) of CPA AM Sanwar Hossain, former chief finance and accounts officer Ahmed Abul Qashem, former Director Luthful Kabir, Ismail Hossain Simon, son of former shipping minister and BNP leader Col (retd) Akbar Hossain, GATCO directors Syed Galib Ahmed, Syed Tanveer Ahmed and AKM Musa Kajol and Akbar's wife Jahanara Ansar and one Ehsan Yusuf.

In the case filed by ACC Deputy Director Golam Shahriar Chowdhury with the Tejgaon Police Station, it was alleged that violating conditions the former prime minister and her son influenced the tender process and the CPA officials helped GATCO win the tender although a three-member tender evaluation committee of the port termed GATCO unfit for the work.

GATCO tried to win the work through interference of the then shipping minister Akbar Hossain. For this, they undertook different ill activities and won the deal misusing the power of Khaleda and Akbar in connivance with Akbar's son Simon.

The company provided 41 percent of GATCO's share to Akbar's wife Jahanara, five percent to AKM Musa Kajol and five percent to Ehsan Yusuf before contesting the tender.

As the company and its directors had no equipment and previous experience, they showed one Shahjahan S Hasib as a director of GATCO, who has experience in container handling, in an ill attempt to fulfill the conditions of the tender, the case said.

The complainant also mentioned that during the course of investigation it was found that 25 organisations bought tender schedules and six of them contested for the bid.

A three-member technical committee formed by the CPA to evaluate the tenders reported that the owners and directors of GATCO have no experience in the job. However, the same committee's report announced the company as responsive and recommended that job be given to it.

The recommendation was sent to the shipping ministry after approval by the CPA.

The case statement said the government's purchase committee in a meeting also found GATCO lacking experience and the proposal was not processed following due rules.

The purchase committee meeting unanimously rejected the illegal proposal of the ministry and recommended for re-tendering the work.

An investigation revealed that Akbar, who was present in that meeting, briefed his son Simon about the proposal of the meeting. To get favour of Khaleda, Simon contacted Arafat and sought his assistance.

After being informed, Arafat influenced his mother win GATCO the job and demanded half the money Simon was supposed to get illegally, the case said.

Arafat influenced his mother after Simon agreed with his demand. Soon after the documents of the tender reach the prime minister's office, Khaleda took initiatives to get GATCO the job, misusing her position and without taking into account any objection by the evaluation and ministerial on purchase.

Due to lack of experience GATCO could not conduct the work smoothly resulting in violence at the ICD on different occasions which caused government a loss of over Tk 1,000 crore, the case said.

The ACC also held Khaleda responsible for the loss caused to the country.

The complainant also said that during interrogation GATCO's sponsored director Galib said that after getting the work he on different occasions gave over Tk 2.19 crore to Simon as per the illegal deal.

When reporters and cameramen of different television channels approached Golam Shahriar after filing of the case at around 11:15pm, he left the place hurriedly.

Many BNP lawmakers and leaders under the shelter of the then prime minister Khaleda had been involved in widespread corruption in the five years of the BNP-Jamaat regime and allegedly accumulated huge wealth and properties by misappropriating power and through illegal means.

A number of former BNP lawmakers and top leaders were arrested in the first crackdown in February after Fakhruddin Ahmed-led caretaker government assumed office in January and declared a war against corruption and criminal godfathers.

As the drive against the corrupt continued, Tarique Rahman was arrested from the cantonment residence of his mother on March 8.

The joint forces in a late night raid also detained Khaleda Zia's younger son Arafat Rahman on April 15. Arafat, however, was released the next day after being interrogated about his and his aides' alleged involvement in fetching a huge amount of money from different sectors by using clout.

Earlier on June 12, Khaleda, her elder son Tarique Rahman and 12 other BNP leaders, who were directors of Daily Dinkal Limited, were sued for not submitting service return of the daily for the last several years.

Under the Income Tax Ordinance, 1984, the Central Intelligence Cell (CIC) of the NBR had earlier asked the banks to provide it with banking information about Khaleda and 10 of her family members.

Finally, the NBR on August 29 asked all banks to freeze the accounts of the former prime minister, her son Arafat and nine others of her family.

Sources said the government is preparing a case over Khaleda's wealth statement submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which has some gross anomalies.

The NBR recently okayed Khaleda's Tk 1.30 crore undisclosed money on payment of Tk 33 lakh tax but rejected Tarique and Koko's bid to legalise Tk 18 lakh and Tk 1.5 crore respectively by paying a total tax and fine of Tk 44 lakh.

Earlier, the High Court quashed two graft cases against Khaleda Zia filed during AL regime regarding Khaleda Zia's house decoration and Airbus purchase.

DS link: http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=2487

As tight a case as any.

[Sohel]

Ex-PM Khaleda sent to jail; Koko placed on 7-day remand

The report will be available here: -

DS link:http://www.thedailystar.net/latest/updates.php?pid=-97

[Sohel]

The inevitable bhangon begins ... so does the end of BNP as we know it. Bektikendrik rajnitir shesh nihshash ...

The report will be available here: -

DS link:http://www.thedailystar.net/latest/updates.php?pid=-96

[chinaman]

Long due action, better late than never. Another good day for Bangladesh. Hope this will translate to lasting happiness for the poor land.

It is really sad to see the immediate relatives of the two persons who loved the country so much. They gave their lives for the country but their relatives gave the country for their lives.

[djuice]

A Dhaka court Monday refused bail to Khaleda Zia and ordered her into jail after security forces arrested the former prime minister early morning. She was driven to a special jail, sited in the Sangsad Bhaban complex, at 10:15am. The house reserved for the speaker of parliament will be used as the special jail. The court of metropolitan magistrate ABM Abdul Fattah remanded the BNP chief's younger son Arafat Rahman Coco, arrested shortly after 7:30am along with her, in custody for seven days for questioning. Personal staffers for Khaleda's family, Yusuf and Amir, were also taken to court. Khaleda arrived in the court in sari and sunglasses and Coco was in jeans and T-shirt. Security officials battled chaos in front of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court for Dhaka. The embattled former prime minister was driven away from her cantonment home to court in a Nissan Patrol car (Dhaka Metro Gha: 02-3327) in a security bubble. Coco was in a different car. The move came hours after the Anticorruption Commission filed a corruption case against 13 people, including the former prime minister and the younger son. Lawyers who defended Khaleda and her son in court were Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan, Sanaullah Miah, Masud Ahmed Talukder, Lutfe Alam and Khorshed Alam. Prosecution officer Abdur Rashid represented the ACC in court. Another group of lawyers, led by Barrister Mahbubuddin Khokan, tried to push their way into court, but RAB officers stopped them, sparking an angry exchange of words. Police and RAB officers and intelligence agents swarmed the road to the Shaheed Mainul Road residence of the BNP chief. Security officers put in place a huge security arrangement on the road to the CMM's Court, but a huge crowd seemed to have stretched it.

In other news the newspaper 'Shomokal' made a huge blunder by published the the news of the arrest before khalda zia was arrested. It is speculated that some of the newspapers in BD are controlled by the Army and they are feeding the news that needs to be published.

[Murad]

অনেক দিন অপেক্ষা করেছিলাম এই খবরের জন্নে। আজ শুনে অনেক খুশি হয়েছি। ভাল ঘুম দিতে পারব। এই দুইটা মহিলা পুরা দেশটাকে শেষ করে দিয়েছে। এগুলোর আশল জাইগা হইছে গিয়া চিরিয়াখানায়। ওখানেই এদের কে বাগ বাল্লুকের সাথে বন্দি করে রাখা উছিত বলে আমি মনে করি। এতে করে অনেক মানুষ চিরিয়াখানায় ওদেরকে দেখতে যাবে টিকিট ক্রয় করে, তাতে চিরিয়াখানার উন্নতি হবে সাথে দেশের ও।

কি থিক বলছি না? আচ্ছা আপ্নারাই বলেন......

[PoorFan]

Hasina must be busy watching TV, or she rushed to her balcony for live show?

[Rabz]

Djuice, mate the news is already been discussed in the "bangladesh breaking news' thread...
plz dont open copy threads ....

mods plz merge this one with the relative thread.

[nsd3]

This old news (by now) should go within the Breaking News Thread. There are more inputs around this news after it was published before.

[shujan]

Originally Posted by PoorFan
Hasina must be busy watching TV, or is she rushed to her balcony.

She would be happy to get Khaleda as company. I guess!

[Banglatiger84]

I do support this arrest if she is guilty of tax evasion and dodgy deals. However, there is every possibility that some members of the CTG may also be guilty of the same wrongdoings, however the govt will never arrest/charge them for obvious reasons.

[nsd3]

Let's keep the counts of how many supported this arrest voluntarily and how many (still to came) would start finding faults on how she was treated/approached bla bla kind of dancing (hujuge public). Hehe after that we might do another count of how many hujuge public is in favor of hasina and How many in Khaleda side. However, I must say good going CTG!

[reverse_swing]

Great news indeed!! What a news to start my week!

[Antora]

hmmm. i might not no that much about politicz... but im soooooooooooooooooo happy both of those 'bangladesh destroyers" are in jail!!!!!!!

[mahbubH]

She even made statement like "Tareque did no corruption"!!

According to the documents submitted to election commission before last elections, these two ladies should not have more than 5 lacs of property and now they have more than 5 cores of money.

[crikss]

Is there anyone interested to see the Khaleda Zia arrested video..But you have to Download(6.15 MB)
So if you r interested then Click here

[Puck]

why wasn't hasina given her own sticky thread?!? i smell bias

[sunnyctg]

First of all, i would like to say ...YAAAHOOOOOOO !! lol.. eto shukh kothai rakhi ! lol . Its a great news for bangladesh. The longer they stay behind bars, the better for the country. And Mannan bhuiya got expelled !! Another ridiculous decision of Khelada. Mannan was like only the only leader i respect in bnp. He deserves a new party and a fresh start. I think that guy has the brain to run a country. We're better off him as a president rather then some loony woman(khaleda that is..lol) claiming Tareq to be innocent when milions of money were found in his bank account. What world does she live in !

[BD-Shardul]

Yahoooooooooooo .a.a.a.a. Hasina Khaleda............both in Jail.............7 din churi kore, ek din dhora pore.........................

[reverse_swing]

Originally Posted by Puck
why wasn't hasina given her own sticky thread?!? i smell bias

Just for few hours to get more response.

[Miraz]

Originally Posted by Puck
why wasn't hasina given her own sticky thread?!? i smell bias

Why Khaleda arrest hasn't given "Breaking News" status? I smell bias