Dhaka: A Bangadesh court has allowed the anti-graft agency to interrogate detained former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in a case of contracting out a coal mine to a Chinese company through alleged corrupt practices, officials said today.

They said the court permission came late yesterday as the powerful Anti-Corruption Commission filed a case against the ex-premier along with 10 former ministers of her previous Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led four-party government in connection with the awarding of the production, operation and maintenance contracts for the Barapukuria coal mine.

Additional metropolitan magistrate M Golam Rabbani issued the order after an ACC petition, which sought to interrogate her and three other detained former ministers.

Zia and 15 others, including 10 of her former cabinet colleagues, were accused by the agency of embezzling Taka 158.71 crore by awarding the contract.

This was the third graft charge against the ex-premier, which was brought a day after the ACC chargesheeted her along with 23 others, including her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko and eight ex-ministers, in a scam case to be tried under tough emergency power rules.

They were charged for allegedly awarding an "unqualified" Bangladeshi farm the contract to handle containers at the Inland Container Depot in Dhaka and at southeastern Chittagong port in exchange of kickbacks, incurring a loss of more than Taka 14.56 crore to the state exchequer.
Source : PTI