Dhaka: Facing corruption charges, detained Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina was questioned for the first time by Bangladesh's powerful anti-graft panel even as her lawyer claimed that the former prime minister was still in dark about the cases against her.

"As she (Hasina) did not get any prior notice about the quizzing, she did not say anything significant," Hasina's counsel Tawfique Newaz told reporters after the 60-year-old leader, arrested on July 16, was questioned at the special jail at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises last evening.

Newaz said, "Hasina is in the dark as to what kind of allegations were brought against her" and she could not give any answer until the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) informed her about the allegations.

But the ACC claimed that a four-member investigation team had completed necessary questioning of Hasina in the case while Hasina's lawyer was present.

"The investigation officer and the members of the taskforce have completed the questioning as much as needed. The task has been completed as per the process of the law," ACC secretary Mokhles ur Rahman told reporters during the commission's regular briefing.

On October 11, ACC officials had questioned Hasina's arch-rival detained former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia at a makeshift jail in connection with the graft cases against her. The two leaders are among the nearly 200 high-profile personalities arrested by the military-backed government under its massive anti-graft drive since the imposition of Emergency in January. 

 

Source : PTI