Detained BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday denied charges against her of corruption in awarding container handling contracts to local company Gatco and said she gave the nod only after the cabinet purchase committee had approved the deal. During interrogation by an Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) team in a graft case against her, she said, "Neither me nor my son had any involvement in the deal." "Earlier, I did not approve the contract as the committee had decided to send back the dossier to the concerned ministry," her tax lawyer Ahmed Aazam Khan quoted her as saying.
Khaleda argued that there is barely any instance of a prime minister rejecting a proposal that has received approval from the purchase committee. The ACC filed the case on September 2 against the former premier, her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko and 11 others for graft in giving Global Agro Trade (Pvt) Co Ltd (Gatco) the contract for container management at the Dhaka Inland Container Depot (ICD) and the Chittagong Port ICD yards.
The following day the joint forces arrested the BNP chief and her son at their cantonment residence. "I was not swayed by anyone and neither did I exert any influence on the purchase committee to award the contract to Gatco," Khaleda said in reply to a query.