Dhaka: Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission has, for the first time, formally pressed charges against detained former premier Khaleda Zia for allegedly contracting out several gas fields to a Canadian oil company in exchange of kickbacks, officials said here today.

The powerful ACC in emergency-ruled country accused Zia and 10 others of "corruption" and "abuse of power" in awarding a gas exploration and extraction deal to Niko Resources Ltd causing a loss of Rupees 8,233 crore (Taka 13,777 crore) to the state while her Bangladesh Nationalist Party ruled the country from 2001 to 2006.

Detained former law minister Moudud Ahmed and former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain of Zia's BNP government were among the others charge-sheeted in the case lodged with a magistrate court late yesterday.

This is the first time formal charges have been laid against Zia since her arrest on September 3 last year as part of a massive anti-graft campaign being spearheaded by the current interim government since its installation with crucial military support on January 12, 2007.

Investigations against Zia, however, is underway in several other graft charges.

ACC in its chargesheet said the 11 accused, several of them already in jail in other graft cases, should be brought to trial as the charges against them "have been proved primarily".

ACC officials said they were expected to submit chargesheet today against Zia's arch-rival and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, another detained former premier and six others in a related case for promoting Niko Resources Limited through corruption while her government was in power from 1996 to 2001.

Source : PTI