A Dhaka court on Tuesday issued warrants for the arrest of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and 27 others in two graft cases over alleged irregularities in the allocation of plots in the capital's Purbachal New Town Project.
Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Md Zakir Hossain Galib passed the order after taking into cognizance the charge sheets submitted by the ACC.
The court also fixed April 28 for submitting a report on whether the accused have been arrested.
Other accused in the cases include Saiful Islam Sarkar, administrative officer at the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, Senior Assistant Secretary Purabi Goldar, Additional Secretary (Administration) Kazi Wasi Uddin, and Secretary Md Shahid Ullah Khandaker.
Former RAJUK officials including personal assistant to the then chairman Anichur Rahman Mia, former estate and land member Mohammad Khurshid Alam, member (development control) Tanmoy Das, former member Mohammad Nasir Uddin, development member Major (retd) Shamsuddin Ahmed Chowdhury,Director Md Kamrul Islam, Assistant Director Majharul Islam, Deputy Director Nayeb Ali Sharif; Director Md Nurul Islam, and former member Shafiul Haque were among the accused.
According to ACC officials, one case was filed against Sheikh Hasina and 11 others, mostly housing ministry and RAJUK officials, for abusing power during her tenure as Prime Minister to secure allocation of a valuable diplomatic zone plot in Sector-27 of the Purbachal project.
In the second case, 17 people, including Sheikh Hasina and her son Joy, were accused of influencing public officials to obtain plots in violation of the relevant laws and procedures.
According to the case statement, although Sheikh Hasina, her children, sister, and other close relatives already owned homes or apartments in Dhaka, this information was allegedly concealed in affidavits.
She allegedly misused her authority as the head of government to exert undue influence over officials of the Ministry of Housing and Public Works and RAJUK to obtain the plot.
On April 10, the same court issued arrest warrants against Sheikh Hasina, her daughter Saima Wazed Putul, and 16 others in a graft case concerning plot allocation in Purbachal.
On April 13, arrest warrants were issued against 53 people, including Sheikh Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana, Rehana's son Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby, and UK MP Tulip Rizwana Siddiq in three other cases involving the alleged illegal acquisition of 30 kathas of land in the same housing project.
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