Dhaka, Mar 10 (UNB)-The hearing on a petition for nullifying the Niko scam case filed during the immediate-past army-backed caretaker government against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was held at the High Court today (Wednesday), a day after another graft case against her involving the Mig-29 fighter-plane purchase was quashed.

The counsel for both sides made their submissions before the HC division bench of Justice M Shamsul Huda and Justice Abu Baker Siddiquee.

Emerging from the court, a government attorney, Motahar Hossain Sazu, told UNB that the judgment in this regard might be delivered tomorrow (Thursday).

On December 9 in 2007, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the Niko scam case against Sheikh Hasina with Tejgaon police station amid a crackdown on former ruling politicians in the interim period following the 1/11 changeover.

According to the charge sheet, the accused, “in collusion with one another” awarded gas-extraction works in Chhatak, Kamta and Feni gas fields to Niko Resources Ltd., a Canadian oil company, “to gain personal financial benefit”. The deals caused a colossal loss of ‘Tk 13,630.50 crore’ to the state exchequer.

On July 7, 2008, the High Court, following a petition filed by Sheikh Hasina, stayed the proceedings of the Niko graft case and issued rule upon the ACC to explain why the case “should not be quashed”.

Hasina in her petition had challenged the validity of the ACC filing the case against her, as government sanction before the filing of the case was not done in accordance with section 32 of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2004 and section 15 of its rules 2007.

Barrister Fazle Noor Tapash MP appeared for the incumbent Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, while advocate Khurshid Alam Khan stood for the ACC.